TRUE POSITION OF VETERINARY SCIENCE 
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medical science, and as the conditions of life are so complex in 
the higher and highest types, its scope is of truly vast extension . 
Indeed, when we contemplate the immensity of the territory to be 
traversed in this one and seemingly small department of natural 
science, the gaze becomes dazzled, and the heart discouraged. 
The horizon looms but faintly in the distance, and like the mari¬ 
ner on the shoreless ocean, though we continually steer toward 
the point where sea and sky seem to embrace, yet we are ever as 
far off. 
The science of medicine, though itself so wide in its range, 
is but a subdivision of biology ; for how can we know what are 
morbid processes without a prior thorough acquaintance with the 
normal conditions of existence. 
Until a comparatively recent period, medical knowledge has 
been confined in its application to the human species, but now its 
benelits are extended also to the domesticated animals ; for in the 
progress of civilization, it has been found necessary to human hap¬ 
piness to preserve them in that state in which they will prove of 
greatest utility. But just here, where the question of utility 
arises, is the point at which society is now making a great error. 
It was certainly practical utility that first pointed out the necess¬ 
ity of veterinary science, but practical utility is not the only aim. 
Viewed solely from this standpoint, veterinary medicine would 
be merely an art, and that of a comparatively low character. It 
has been considered as such, and is, to tell the truth, practiced in 
such a manner at the present day by most of its practitioners as to 
justify the conclusion. But properly regarded it is much more than 
an art. It is a science in the highest acceptation of that term. 
It is but a specialty of medical science, which in its turn comes 
under the head of biology, and this again is but a branch of natu¬ 
ral science ; and the prosecution of natural science must be con¬ 
sidered as the noblest pursuit of humanity. 
It was to show this connection that, a few moments ago, I en¬ 
deavored to outline briefly the evolution of science from its very 
origin, and a few of the ultimate causes of this growth. Though 
it may have seemed irrelevant to treat the subject in such a man¬ 
ner, I deem it of such high importance that veterinary science should 
