352 
PRESIDENT BERGh’s ADDRESS. 
source of numerous fatal diseases, no sensible physiologist or 
surgeon will deny. Can there be a more exalted ambition or 
duty, than to educate young men to stand as sentinels between 
the unsuspicious public and the diseases and death which the 
cupidity of corporations engender ? 
To this College and similar ones, let us hope that the time is 
approaching when the State will address itself, for surgeons, well- 
trained in the diseases of animals destined for human consumption; 
for millions of money are annually sacrificed, to say nothing of 
the loss of health and detriment to moral character, by reason 
of the absence of just such officials as it is the province of this 
institution to supply. 
And now, gentlemen, I desire to approach with all the gravity 
which the subject demands, the practice of that art which it is 
your aim, let us hope, to perfect yourselves in. 
It is an undeniable fact, that the malpractice of ignorant 
pretenders in diseases of dumb animals, has crippled and killed 
more creatures than all other causes combined. 
Owing to the absence of any restraining power on the part 
of the law, the most densely stupid blockhead may, after a brief 
experience in a farrier’s shop, nail up his “ shingle,” as the dis¬ 
honored morsel of wood, bearing his name upon it, is called, and 
henceforth insult science by calling himself a veterinary surgeon! 
I beg you to believe that I am not exaggerating when I say 
that, in my capacity of assistant public prosecutor, numerous in¬ 
stances have occurred, where the witness—such a one as I have 
described—has been put upon the stand, who could not correctly 
pronounce, and absolutely did not know the meaning of the word 
indicating the profession to which he claimed that he belonged. 
No one knows better than you do, the murderous consequences of 
the treatment inflicted on helpless dumb animals by these sense¬ 
less malefactors. 
Neither the spirit of mercy, nor an admission of the fact, that 
gentle treatment, along with the curative principles inherent in 
nature, may effect a remedy, have any weight in their crude diag¬ 
noses. 
Poisons the most active, blistering, firing, purging, along with 
