58 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
other gases, and made them turn the wheels of vehicles upon 
tracks. This caused, almost at one time, thousands of horses, 
used in the transportation of the masses to and from their daily 
toil, to be thrown into disuse, and as a result a tremendous fall¬ 
ing off in price in this once important factor in internal com¬ 
merce. 
“ Our veterinary schools had trained us to consider the horse 
to be the basis of all our veterinary study. At least, the aim of 
most of our institutions of veterinary learning seems to have 
had in mind only the training of the equine physician, almost, 
in some cases, to the exclusion of the other six kinds of domes¬ 
tic animals. In fact, veterinarians were frequently met who 
scoffed at the very thoughts of treating dogs or swine, and even 
the ox, to use their own expression, was an animal for which 
one ‘ good physic ’ was the only drug their materia medica 
seemed to suggest as necessary to cure its every ill. How often 
have we heard stock owners say of the nearest veterinary sur¬ 
geon : He’s a good ‘ horse doctor,’ but don’t know much about 
cattle. Might not our sources of revenue be more numerous if 
some of us ‘posted up’ a little better on animal diseases other 
than the equine ? 
“ In these stringent times, which are happily and surely 
passing over and away from us, little incentive could have been 
felt by the bulk of our profession to show great progress along 
the lines of their calling. Our advancement, then, has been 
along purely scientific lines, and the work of careful, pains¬ 
taking members of the fraternity whom we have too often 
somewhat scornfully sought to classify as ‘ laboratory recluses,’ 
‘ kid-gloved boss doctors,’ and the like. A review of what these 
representatives of our profession have done for the advancement 
of our profession, should convince the most sceptical that they 
have kept apace of the times. 
“ Unfortunately, not much of this scientific advancement, 
even, has been noted in our own State, Most of it has come to 
us from neighboring commonwealths, and the major part from 
Europe, where with their national schools, well trained and long 
experienced teaching forces, splendid equipment, long course of 
instruction and well directed veterinary organizations they lead 
us by a decade. 
“ All the advancement we have made, the progress we have 
experienced, of late, in our State, has been : First, the practical 
application of suggestions, the result of scientific investigations, 
which our reading colleagues deduce from current literature ; 
