248 LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
certain number of common interests which serve as intellectual ties of 
association. Now I would ask. what are the common interests which 
draw us together ? First and foremost I would say, there is operating 
within us an indefinable feeling of self-interest, prompting us to come 
together and listen to the remarks and opinions of others upon diseases, 
and important questions, with which we individually are daily and hourly 
contending in our business. We feel anxious to have an interchange of 
ideas, and are impelled by a strong intellectual desire to acquire more 
practical knowledge by which we may with more ease administer relief, 
and with more certainty remove suffering, or save life. We may truly 
liken this to an errand of mercy, for what object can be more laudable, 
or more praiseworthy ? Talk of a heavenly calling being incompatible 
with an earthly calling, why this in its very contemplation has an infinite 
charm. It is a proverb as old as it is true, that “ there is more pleasure 
in giving than in receiving/’ There is not one of us, however humble 
or however eminent, but he may impart some knowledge to others. In 
this you cannot fail to observe that there are two powerful motives 
operating to cement and perpetuate our associations; let us, then, 
cordially co-operate and become strong by union, being actuated by one 
desire, namely, the advancement of our profession. That man who can sit 
in our midst, listening for two orthree hours at a timeto the sensible remarks 
made by experienced and practical men and gain no benefit, must be a 
dolt indeed. The man of quick perception, the intelligent man, cannot 
fail to pick up and secure practical knowledge which will be of more 
use to him in his daily avocation than gold, aye, even fine gold. During 
the two years of our former society, and the fifteen months of this asso¬ 
ciation, I have not heard one single jarring word spoken by its members. 
Everything has been to the contrary; the one vying with the other to 
contribute something for the general good. 
You will observe, gentlemen, I am contemplating the high moral 
grounds of usefulness of these associations. There are a great number 
of other aspects in which we might contemplate them, such, for instance, 
as their social aspect, the feeling of pleasure we must of necessity expe¬ 
rience in being in each others society, the casual and incidental con¬ 
versations upon interesting cases then under our treatment, coming to 
mutual friendly understandings in reference to professional consultations, 
and also the consideration of the question of a more equitable rate of charge 
for shoeing, which, as matters stand at present, is a miserably inadequate 
return, &c., &c. There is likewise another aspect which I delineated at the 
Leeds Association, and which has been deemed worthy of insertion in 
the pages of the Veterinarian for this month. But there is still another 
important use which these associations may be made to subserve, and 
which I shall here characterise as being the greatest of them all; and I 
beg to call your very earnest attention seriously to this point, namely, 
they may be made to concentrate practical knowledge upon given 
points; for, although the Royal Veterinary College was founded for 
the purpose of developing and imparting scientific information, and 
the professors and teachers from first to last have done their duty nobly, 
still there are certain diseases with reference to the cure of which our 
knowledge is lamentably deficient. For instance, there are farcy, 
glanders, tetanus, canker, scarlatina, purpura hsemorrhagica, in the 
horse; pleuro-pneumonia in cattle; rot and smallpox in sheep; rabies 
or hydrophobia in the dog. Now, since we are living in an enlightened 
age, in which scientific discoveries have given us great advantages over 
our ancestors, and as it is my great desire to make this paper as truly 
useful and practical as possible, I would for that purpose respectfully 
