13 
them an opportunity, which in their official capacity has found its way into the history 
of that great invasion as recorded in the different health reports. z-' 
So as to show you how little was known of the requirements of veterinarians 
I will report to you facts of some importance which took place some two or three years 
ago in Congress at Washington, and which, I think, will be found interesting. They 
are taken from the Atlantic Monthly, of September, 1869. While speaking of the 
lobby in Washington the author describes a scene which has much bearing upon the 
standing of the Veterinary Profession. I now read from the monthly : 
“ But to my scene. One afternoon in February last, while the House in Commit- l, 
tee of the Whole was working its slow and toilsome way down, item after item, 
through the Army Appropriation Bill, under the leadership of the alert and vigorous 
Mr. Blaine, now the Speaker of the House, a clause of the bill was about to pass 
without debate, when Mr. Fernando Wood, of New York, rose and offered the follow¬ 
ing curious amendment; ‘ But no part of the sum (appropriated) shall be paid to Alex¬ 
ander Dunbar for his alleged discovery of the mode of treatment of horses’ feet. There N 
had been no mention of the said Dunbar in the clause, nor of his mode of treating 
horses’ feet, nor of any other sytsem of treatment ; and the very name of the man was 
evidently unknown to the House. Mr. Wood proceeded to explain that the Secretary 
of War, General Schofield, had made a contract (authorized by act of Congress) with 
Alexander Dunbar, by which the latter was to receive twenty-five thousand dollars 
for imparting his system of horse-shoeing and hoof-treatment to the veterinary surgeons 
and cavalry blacksmiths of the army. ‘ And I am advised,’ continued the member 
from New York, * by those who are judges of that subject, that the man is totally ig¬ 
norant, that he knows nothing about the diseases of horses’ feet, and that he rather 
perpetrates injury upon the poor animals than produces any benefit to them.’ 
“Fernando Wood, in his air and deiheanor, is one of the most dignified and im¬ 
pressive members of the House. He attends carefully to his dress ; and as to his ‘ de¬ 
portment,’ Mr. Turveydrop would contemplate him with approval. For such a per¬ 
sonage to rise in his place, and,'in a measured, serene manner, discourse thus upon a 
subject of which no man on the floor knew anything whatever, could not fail to pro¬ 
duce some effect. Mr. Blaine could only say, that he had never heard the name of 
Alexander Dunbar before ; but that he thought the amendment cast a severe reflection 
upon the Secretary of War. Mr, Wood insisting, the amendment was finally amended 
so as to make the exclusion apply to the whole Appropriation Bill; and thus cut off 
the unknown Dunbar entirely ; and in this form, 1 believe, it passed the Committee of 
the Whole, and was prepared for submission to the House ; at least, Mr. Wood agreed 
to withdraw his amendment in order to amend it in the way described. 
“ It did so happen that there was a person sitting in a commodious corner of the 
reporters’ gallery, who, though a stranger to Mr. Dunbar, and singularly ignorant of 
horses, yet knew all about the Dunbar system and its discoverer. That person, strange 
to relate, was myself; and if it had not been a little out of order, I should have shout¬ 
ed a few words of explanation over the vast expanse below. Rising superior to 
this temptation, and thus avoiding the attention of the sergeant-at-arms, I constituted 
myself a Dunbar lobby, and imparted to as many members as possible some of the 
facts which I am now about to communicate to the reader. Some years since, the 
mysterious Alexander Dunbar, an honest, observant farmer and Contractor, of Canada, 
was driving a lame horse on a hilly road. He noticed that the horse was lamest when 
