CORRESPONDENCE. 
389 
those of nature—the transition from a state of health to a state of disease 
is more easily traced, and diseased processes are more simple in the 
lower animal than in man. The student of animal pathology and medi¬ 
cine is able to command the circumstances of disease to an extent quite 
unparalleled in the c'ase of man. Both the individual and his environ¬ 
ment are, in a great measure, under the control of the observer, and by 
varying the conditions of life, he is able to modify the course and pro¬ 
gress of disease. There is thus afforded him an opportunity of calling 
into play, of varying, or of removing, the conditions which appear to 
induce disease, and thus to determine the essential factors of morbid 
processes. In the human subject, one of our greatest difficulties is, that 
conditions cannot be repeated or varied at will, and thus arises the un¬ 
certainty which hedges in the study of medicine, however indefatigable 
and sincere may be the student. Again, in the lower animals morbid 
processes can be studied in all stages of their progress, for the victim of 
disease can at any moment be destroyed. In this way essential and 
early changes can be differentiated from those which are secondary and 
mere complications. It is the privilege of our office to prolong human 
life to its utmost limit, and hence, we are unable to employ the scalpel 
and the microscope, or the test tube, to the dead body, till such time as 
the original morbid processes have become greatly obscured, if not com¬ 
pletely effaced. Such knowledge is necessarily one-sided; for, by 
studies prosecuted on the dead, we are often unable to discover the 
subtle and delicate point on which is suspended the beam, oscillating 
between recovery and death. It is in the domain of preventive medicine, 
however, that we have most to expect from veterinary medicine. Here 
the scientist is not only able to indicate the measures necessary for the 
suppression of disease, but can get legislative authority for enforcing 
them. From knowledge gained in this department we shall be able to 
apply the remedies necessary for the prevention of human diseases. 
Many of the. grandest achievements in physiology, pathology and 
therapeutics have been gained in the sphere of the veterinary physician 
by students and practitioners of human medicine. The more advanced 
position of human medical science explained this anomaly in former 
times. But now veterinary medicine has developed from the empirical 
to the scientific stage, and the veterinary profession will be expected to 
contribute more and more to the knowledge of our science and art, 
The training of the veterinary practitioner is daily becoming more com¬ 
prehensive and more careful, and the fruits of this are seen in the rapid 
advances of veterinary science, and in the culture of those engaged in 
