590 
W. H. LOWE. 
not better to prevent infection than to allow it to occur and 
then try to relieve or cure the patient ? Of course, it is not in¬ 
tended or contemplated to put the human practitioner out of 
business, but simply to relieve the busy practitioner as much as 
possible. 
Speaking seriously, permit me to say that a large integral 
part of preventive medicine belongs essentially to comparative 
medicine, and nobody recognizes and appreciates this fact more 
than far-seeing members of that time-honored profession. The 
truth is that the two branches of medicine, human and veteri¬ 
nary, are inseparable. No advance can be made in one without 
benefiting the other. The contemporary advances in medicine 
have necessitated an extensive remodelling of the medical and 
veterinary curricula and methods, and we see as a result the 
incorporation of the principal veterinary colleges in our great 
universities. 
No fact has drawn a closer connection between animal and 
human diseases, or the protection of the public health through 
domestic animals, than the introduction of the antitoxin prin¬ 
ciples of serum therapy. The immunizing of animals against 
fatal contagious diseases ; the rapid and certain diagnosis of 
latent diseases which cannot be known by physical symptoms 
and their early isolation before they have spread their disease 
germs among their kind, or even to the human family; the 
cure of some diseases by the administration of repeated doses of 
attenuated virus and the prevention cf development of disease by 
their early administration—are phases of the role of veterinary 
science which makes it a great preserver of the public health. 
Contemplate for a moment the importance of these serums: 
Tuberculin, used for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in dairy cat¬ 
tle ; mallein, used for the diagnosis of glanders in the horse ; 
vaccine, employed to protect mankind from small-pox ; tetanus 
antitoxin, employed in the treatment of lockjaw ; diphtheria 
antitoxin, employed in the treatment of diphtheria, as well as 
the antitoxins employed in anthrax, rabies, and other diseases. 
The value of animal serums employed for diagnostic, prophy- 
