330 
W. H. DALRYMPLE. 
* 
etc. Besides these he ought, of course, to be familiar with the 
orders to which the principal vegetable drugs belongs, as : Atro- 
pacise, papaveracese, scrofularacese, liliacese, ranunculacese, etc. 
And he ought to be able, from his knowledge of. the subject, to 
recognize noxious and toxic plants which are either known, or 
supposed to be injurious to the domestic animals. And, in addi¬ 
tion to these, his knowledge should extend to a familiarity with 
the various parasitic and saprophytic vegetable fungi from which 
the higher orders of plants suffer, and in consequence are depre- 
ciatedln nutritive value, as well as sometimes rendered danger¬ 
ous to the health of animals. 
So far, then, I have touched briefly upon anatomy and phy¬ 
siology, and incidentally upon botany, but when we come to the 
subject of pathology, the field again broadens out, since living 
organisms, in the form of pathogenic bacteria, have been found 
as the result of patient scientific investigation, to be the chief 
causative factors in disease. Not only, then, is it necessary for the 
student of comparative medicine to have a knowledge of the 
sttucture and functions of the larger and higher forms of both 
animal and plant life, but it is imperative, in this age of scien¬ 
tific advancement, that he be familiar, also, with the morphology 
and physiology of those minute forms which have been found to 
be responsible for so much destruction to both life and property. 
If I might be allowed a slight digression at this point, I would 
like to add, that the close relationship existing between the 
work of the veterinarian, along bacteriological lines, and the 
public health, is not, perhaps sufficiently known to be fully ap¬ 
preciated, more especially in the Southern States. In sections 
of our own country more advanced in the knowledge of this 
subject, and in European countries, the veterinary profession of 
to-day is looked upon as an indispensable factor m the conserva¬ 
tion of the public health, as well as that immense item of pub¬ 
lic wealth which is represented by “ the cattle upon a thousand 
hills.” It is, however, the knowledge which the modern veter¬ 
inarian is required to possess relative to diseases of bacterial 
origin in the lower animals, and which are communicable to the 
