422 
REPORT OF ANNUAL MEETING. 
we have not the opportunity we ought to have to open our 
minds to one another, and to talk over our ideas. On this 
point of natural history I hold it absolutely essential that 
the veterinary surgeon should have a basis of knowledge in 
zoology, botany, and geology; not to be treated by three 
different professors, but to be treated by a professor of 
natural history. I notice constantly that veterinary sur¬ 
geons are incapable of grasping certain of the fundamental 
ideas with regard to the distribution of diseases, because they 
have not understood the laws which govern the geographical 
distribution of certain geological strata, and the geographical 
distribution of animals and plants. Now, I certainly know 
from experience, from travelling, and from investigation in 
different parts of the country, that if I go to certain districts 
in Ireland I can there find special diseases of animals, and if 
I go to certain districts in Scotland I can there find special 
diseases of animals, not found elsewhere. People might live 
for a century in London and never hear of certain maladies 
which attack the sheep and other animals in this country. 
I lived two or three years in Edinburgh, and never heard of 
the existence of such a disease as the cripple or fragility of 
bone, which I have been in the habit of describing in my 
lectures as constantly occurring in central Europe. I never 
knew that I should find it within forty miles of Edinburgh, 
or that I should find it in certain districts in Ireland. 
Again, you have the periodic ophthalmia of horses, which is 
confined to certain districts. Why should we not see it in 
Edinburgh, but find it always in Liverpool, in Dublin, and 
in London? It is the same with the distribution'of animals 
themselves. We have the Natterjack Toad in County Kerry, 
and we do not get it in any other part of the country. 
Unless we have a good foundation of natural history we 
cannot understand this and other phenomena of the same 
kind. But the value of the study of natural history starts 
out in a remarkable manner when we consider the subject of 
helminthology, relating to the internal parasites concerning 
which so much has been learned of late years, and of which 
so little is yet known by both the medical and the vete¬ 
rinary profession combined. I do not wish to put you 
behind the medical profession in this respect. I was speak¬ 
ing to a member of the medical profession this morning, a 
most eminent man, and he told me he was recently at Wol¬ 
verhampton, where individual medical practitioners confess 
to having from two to three hundred cases of tape-worm 
every year under treatment, without knowing it came from 
eating measly pork. We have between one and two per cent. 
