762 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON HIPPOPATHOLOGY. 
benefactor of his kind, then surely in a nation such as ours, 
where from climatic and other influences the use of animal 
food is all but a necessary article of existence, the preserva¬ 
tion of animal health and the prevention of disease are 
• objects worthy the attention of intelligent men, and their 
endeavours in this direction deserving of public countenance 
and support. 
If we are not yet in possession of any specific for the 
most formidable and fatal disorders with which our stock 
are affected, we have at least reached this—the certainty of 
our ability to prevent or circumscribe their ravages. 
The annual loss to the country and the holders of stock 
from certain diseases, probably incurable, or at least unpro¬ 
fitable to treat, might in all cases be materially lessened or 
circumscribed were an investigation of the causes and cir¬ 
cumstances under which these are developed only undertaken 
by men competent to conduct such inquiries. 
We have been and are still too often looked upon as the 
mere tools or agencies by which it is sometimes possible to 
reinstate sick animals in healthy or working condition; too 
much valued simply by the test of how many can you save 
of those which are diseased ? and too little employed to 
prevent the occurrence of such diseases. 
It is not an uncommon thing for both writers and teachers, 
when introducing to their readers or hearers any particular 
subject or branch of human learning, to expatiate on its 
individual importance or superiority as compared with other 
cognate studies. Thus it is that the metaphysician, in in¬ 
troducing his subject, starts with the acknowledged superi¬ 
ority of man, and in him of the supremacy of mind; that 
the teacher of religion balances the seen with the unseen, the 
material with the spiritual, time with eternity. 
Now, as regards that division of veterinary medicine, 
which shall here from time to time more particularly engage 
our attention, although we cannot claim for it any such 
transcendent importance, it will nevertheless be found that 
when viewed in its relation to those other divisions of study 
which go to make up the sum total of that very extensive 
and important subject or branch of human knowledge the 
science of veterinary medicine—we use the term science of 
veterinary medicine in its widest and most general accepta¬ 
tion, as embracing both science or principles, and practice of 
veterinary medicine and surgery—it will be found second to 
none. 
No, gentlemen, I am not afraid that in the present day of 
intense utilitarian tendencies and fierce grasping after 
