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A year’s progress in medicine. 
A YEAR’S PROGRESS IN MEDICINE. 
At the commencement exercises of the United States Col¬ 
lege of Veterinary Surgeons Prof. D. S. Uamb, A. M., M. D., 
delivered the following interesting address to the students on 
behalf of the faculty : 
At the request of our worthy Dean, I will say a few parting 
words in this, the closing hour of the third session of the college 
and the corresponding commencement. 
Since a year ago, during which teachers and pupils have 
been devoting themselves to the routine of lectures, and recita¬ 
tions, clinics and laboratory work, the world of medicine, both 
in its human and comparative side, has been making progress. 
This progress has been most marked in the domains of path¬ 
ology, diagnosis, and treatment. 
Pathology has been notably enriched through the work of 
the experimental laboratory, and especially by the investigations 
in bacteriology. The study of the pathogenic organisms ; their 
multiplication, especially in the form of spores ; the methods, 
especially the methods of staining, by which they may individu¬ 
ally be recognized; their different forms, at different periods, 
and under different circumstances, especially their involution 
forms ; their strong resemblances and marked differences, and 
their cultures, by which also they may be identified; their 
habits and habitats ; their relative and actual virulence ; the 
various ways by which they cause death ; how they may be de¬ 
stroyed, from the air, from the water, from the soil, from our 
clothing, houses and food ; from the animal system itself ; how 
they may be attenuated, or intensified ; the relative and actual 
susceptibility of individuals to their influence and the influence 
of their toxic products ; how long they can preserve their patho¬ 
genic powers, and under what circumstances ; what is the best 
and most efficient prophylaxis against them, and what the best 
and most efficient treatment of the diseases which they cause. 
These and other questions which I have not mentioned, are 
questions which arise and are to be answered in connection with 
each pathogenic organism. The number and variety of these 
questions will give sure ideas of the vastness of the subject, and 
the immensity of the work which the bacteriological laboratory 
is called upon to do. The year’s work has been large and vari¬ 
ous. Just how much of the result promises to be useful in the 
prevention and treatment of disease remains to be seen. Of 
