NORTH OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 593 
Apologies were received from Profs. Walley, Williams, McCall, and 
Axe ; also Messrs. F. B. Nisbet, and C. Shorten. 
The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed, and the 
following gentlemen were elected members :—G. Fanow, junr. (Durham), 
A. Chivas (Corbridge-on-Tyne), and F. Temple (Chester-le-Street). 
The Treasurer’s account, which showed that £12 5s. Id. had been 
received during the year, the outlay had been £7 Os. 6d., leaving a 
balance in hand of £5 4s. 7d. The report was adopted. 
Professor Pritchard read a paper on “ Some of the Contagious Dis¬ 
eases affecting Cart Horses.” The Professor dwelt more particularly 
on hereditary diseases, and defined hereditary predisposition as the 
transmission of the seeds of disease or a predisposition to disease from 
the parent to the progeny. He next gave a list of hereditary diseases, 
then showed that the disease might often disappear for a time ; he said 
a horse which was a “ roarer ” might breed and the disease might not 
show itself until two or three generations afterwards. If a horse had 
been bred of a roarer and had not shown any of the disease when young 
they might depend upon it if the horse was subject to some great exer¬ 
tion or some fright, it would become a roarer at once. 
A discussion on the paper followed, in which Messrs. Mulvey, H. 
Hunter, D. Macgregor, Elphick, Gofton, Corbett, the President, Ste¬ 
phenson, A. Hunter, and W. Awde took part. 
The President next delivered his inaugural address ; amongst other 
remarks he said, “ He thought the tendency of the present age was to 
overdo everything, and he sometimes thought the Council of the Royal 
College of Veterinary Surgeons were not exempt from that tendency. 
He wished it to be distinctly understood that no one valued education 
more than he did, and in one sense no one could educate a man too 
highly. But it must be borne in mind that they could not all be army 
veterinary surgeons, they could not all be located in large cities and 
have large and lucrative practices. There must still remain a great 
number of quiet practitioners. Nevertheless, those men were as useful 
in their sphere as their more fortunate brethren. Referring to the Con¬ 
tagious Diseases (Animals) Act, the speaker said that one of their local 
papers a short time since devoted a leader to what he described as 
“The Dear Meat Act.” Its whole scope and tendency was the very 
reverse. It had been the means of almost completely stamping out 
those devastating contagious diseases which only a few years ago proved 
fatal to their flocks and herds, and cost the country millions of money. 
He had no hesitation in saying that the firm and judicious action of the 
veterinary department of the Privy Council, aided by the local authori¬ 
ties and their veterinary inspectors, had done more to keep down the 
price of butcher meat than all the free importation of foreign stock. 
He congratulated the members upon the amount of success which had 
attended this association during the past year. The good feeling and 
good fellowship which was developing amongst them he hoped would 
continue to develop, and that their membership would be largely 
increased. In conclusion, he thanked the members for having twice 
elected him president.” (Applause.) He proposed a vote of thanks to 
Prof. Pritchard for his trouble in coming from London, and giving 
them such an interesting paper. Mr. Mulvey seconded the motion, 
which was carried with acclamation. 
Afterwards the members and guests sat down to an excellent dinner, 
at which all the loyal and other toasts were ably proposed and responded 
to, a very enjoyable evening being spent. G. R. Dudgeon, 
Hon. Sec. 
