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NORTH OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL 
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fled form or character. No true and earnest worker, he 
his field of labour ever so limited, can fail in making a 
certain amount of progress; but if lie has not the power, or 
the opportunity of comparing the results with those obtained 
by others, and of thus extending, as it were, the scope of his 
observations, he must labour at a great disadvantage, and 
incur the risk of constantly being in error, or at best, he is 
only compensated for loss in general range by what he gains 
in some special department. 
Again, another important, I had almost said an unlimited, 
subject for our investigation and discussion is the hygiene 
of domesticated animals. It is one which will well repay all 
who have the opportunity, and are willing to labour for the 
benefit of others and for the advancement of our knowledge 
of so important a branch of science, inseparably connected, 
as it is, with veterinary practice. For my own part, I must 
confess that I consider the study of hygiene to be of far 
more importance to the veterinary surgeon than the study 
of therapeutics, for surely there is much more true philo¬ 
sophy and more noble scientific research in the prevention 
of disease than in the cure of it. I do not hesitate to assert 
that three-fourths of the diseases of the lower animals arise 
from an insufficient attention to the laws of hygiene. Surely 
at the present day, when agriculture is making such mighty 
strides—when the largest portion of our farmers are begin¬ 
ning to read and think and reason for themselves upon the 
everyday facts brought before their notice—when shrewd 
and clever business men, bent on money-making, are con¬ 
cocting “ concentrated aliments/* tc condimental foods,” and 
“ nutritious cakes,” made with one half bran—bought at £5 
and sold at J01O—and when the Hassels, Normandys, War- 
ringtons, and Thompsons, are detecting the adulterations and 
exposing the impositions of the vendors of the food of man, 
it is not for us to allow men out of our profession to detect the 
adulterations and impositions of the vendors of the food of 
quadrupeds. No; this should be the province of the veteri¬ 
nary profession. If she delegate the most important scientific 
part of her duty to men out of her pale, what right have we— 
her votaries—to complain if the public judge us according 
to our fruits? Again, when the professional veterinarian 
meets with the well-educated farmer or proprietor of large 
numbers of animals, who has studied Comb, Carpenter, 
Liebig, Johnstone, and Yoelcker, and filled his well-trained 
mind with useful information, what opinion would he, nay, 
must he form, when he found that many among us scarcely 
took sufficient interest in reading even to read our own monthly 
