672 NORTH OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
honour to the exalted positions they occupy—must, by the movement 
that has recently taken place in the provinces, and also by the deep in¬ 
terest that has been excited throughout the length and breadth of the 
land, be stimulated to advance. 13y these associations, I say, and with a 
full knowledge of all these facts before us, who can doubt the great good 
that must result, not only to our own profession specially, but to society 
at large ? It is a simple rule-of-three question ; when we have a greater 
number of intellects at work, we must have greater results; and let me 
ask, can there be anything more grand or noble than the spectacle of a 
great intellect grappling with a great difficulty ? We have heard a great 
deal said about manly occupations: can there be (I would ask again) any¬ 
thing more truly manly than in associating together, and exercising the 
best abilities God lifts given us in mitigating the ills that flesh is heir to, 
in ameliorating and circumscribing the evils engendered by civilization? 
(Hear, hear.) What nobler occupation can be conceived than in em¬ 
ploying our best abilities in tasks such as have been laid before us this 
afternoon, viz., checking the ravages and limiting the area of various 
contagious and destructive pestilences? Meetings of these kinds must 
have their effect. They give us a feeling like unto giants refreshed with 
wine, and an increased determination 1o go forth and to do something 
worthy of the noble profession to which we belong. (Cheers.) In my 
own city, one of our ablest and most experienced men, Mr. Lawson, has 
in a most laudable manner undertaken to bring into our association the 
subject Tetanus. He has devoted much of his time and mind to it, and 
now adopts a method that has cured, eight out of ten cases. His son, too, has 
devoted much of his time and mind to another disease considered hitherto 
all but incurable—I alludeto cancer. He has cured two out of three cases ; 
they were cases amongst the worst I have ever seen, and the third is on 
the high way to recovery. I allude to these things in order to illustrate 
the great value of associations. I have no doubt but they have stimulated 
thought and contributed to results such as I have named. Then as to 
contagious diseases, I am apprehensive that I shall be unable to contribute 
any knowledge upon this great and important subject, perhaps the most 
important veterinary question that can engage the mind of man. Situated 
as I am in one of the largest cities in the kingdom, where rot in sheep 
is unknown, where pleuro-pneumonia is only occasionally seen, my oppor¬ 
tunities have been limited; but limited as have been my means of observa¬ 
tion, I have nevertheless paid some attention to this class of diseases, 
and I am rejoiced to see so many practical men met together to make 
a collective effort to devise some means whereby their dreadful effects 
may be in some measure, at least, mitigated. The question is no fiction, 
although it may have been somewhat over-coloured in some quarters; 
it is, nevertheless, a very weighty and important one to study. It is the 
duty of every man to do all he can to circumscribe the area of contagion 
as much as possible. If some historian or romance writer, some man 
of a high order of intellect, were to take it into his head to make this 
subject the theme for his pen, I can easily conceive him drawing some¬ 
thing like the following picture :—“At a certain period in the history of 
a great nation, in the midst of its greatest state of prosperity, it was 
visited with a most destructive pestilence, which smote its flocks and 
herds. So wide-spread were the ravages of this pestilence, that not only 
were the agricultural classes of that but every surrounding nation re¬ 
duced in numberless instances to penury and ruin. Everything that 
science and skill could suggest was done to check its fatal progress; the 
government and many scientific bodies in each nation strained every 
nerve in vain ; the disease went on with more or less malignity for twenty 
