LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 249 
and in all earnestness suggest that our secretary be instructed to confer 
with the secretaries of the Yorkshire Society and North of England 
Society, and also to invite our brethren on the other side of the Tweed, 
viz., the West of Scotland Society, to join with us in singling out one of 
these diseases at a time for consideration. Let us take tetanus as one 
year’s work, and canker for another year’s, and so on. Let us thus do 
all we can, I beg of you, to accomplish this task. Let us see what col¬ 
lective effort can do in extending knowledge, let every member of these 
societies put his shoulder to the wheel, and gain all the information he 
possibly can upon one given point at a time. I want the energies of the 
whole body to be aroused to make a great intellectual effort, and I be¬ 
lieve I shall be appealing to the most likely tribunal on earth to attain 
my purpose, namely, to large bodies of educated and intellectual men 
in the lieighday of manhood, whose whole time and mind are occupied 
entirely with these kind of cases. The wide area of practical expe¬ 
rience that can be thus comprehended, may enable us to accomplish 
something in our day and generation; and with a view of giving an im¬ 
petus and an inducement to research, I respectfully suggest that the 
man who can discover a remedy that can cure nineteen out of every 
twenty cases, shall have presented to him not only the title of “Honorary 
Associate” of this society, but also a gold medal. I would stipulate no re¬ 
striction whatever; it should not even matter whether he possesses 
a diploma or not. I do not mean the man who can write the best paper 
on these diseases, nor do I mean it to be the man who can cure a casual 
case, for we can any of us do that, perhaps, again and again. He must 
practically develope a certain specific mode of cure, and make the same 
fully known to us ; and as I am one of those men who utterly abominate 
all shams and barren efforts, I will gladly make an annual contribution 
of£lO towards that purpose. But you will perhaps say, these things 
are insurmountable, and some of you may be ready to charge me with 
being an enthusiast. To such a charge I can only say I should feel 
proud of it, if only I was deserving of it. Sir Humphrey Davy, with 
his small lighted lamp in his hand, stood undaunted in the very teeth of 
the death-blast without any fear, for he felt there was an immunity from 
danger : he had robbed death of all his terrors in the mine. Yes, there 
he proudly, nobly stood, and received the homage and the blessings of a 
whole world. He is one of the greatest and grandest of enthusiasts. 
Dr. Jenner, after twenty-five years’patient and unremitting experiments 
with smallpox and cow-pox, became at length triumphant. Behold 
him, too, as he proudly and nobly stands, his vanquished victim lying 
at his feet, and he receiving the homage and thanks of a grateful people. 
Others may be named in honour of enthusiasm. Such are Newton, 
Shakespeare, Watts, Stevenson. The latter was declared a lunatic in 
addition to that of an enthusiast, because he said he would drive a loco¬ 
motive at the rate of twelve miles an hour. And last, though not least, 
Bichard Cobden of our own time. All of these were enthusiasts upon 
the particular subjects to which they had devoted and consecrated their 
lives, and England is proud to call them her sons. In fact, every great 
man that ever did exist, and probably every great man who ever will 
exist, must be an enthusiast. It is because he is an enthusiast that ho 
becomes a great man. But there may be others of you who are ready to 
say, the task I want to accomplish is chimerical or utopian; that I am 
far too sanguine, for no one will make such a hopeless attempt. Need 
I adduce any other proof to controvert such a timid statement than the 
fact that one of our ablest members—certainly the best veterinary 
microscopist and physiologist of the day—is going to “seize the bull 
xxxvn. 17 
