4o8 



The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



the truth. There is this law against them — 

 if by their words they excite to a breach of 

 the common law they become liable as abet- 

 tors and accessories, and may be punished in 

 the same way as those parties whom they 

 have led on to commit wrong, always bearing 

 in mind that their words must be verified on 

 oath. There now remains no more statute law, 

 nor yet any more common law for me to 



point out. But there is that old law, the 

 natural law of supply and demand. Circum- 

 stances may overpower or regulate the course 

 of supply and demand : the latter, however, 

 must in die long run regulate everything — all 

 the business of life must in fact be regulated 

 by supply and demand. Do what we may, 

 whatever any parties may do, that law will 

 rule and govern the business of this country. 



IMPEDIMENTS TO VETERINAR Y SCIENCE IN GREA T 



BRITAIN. 



WHEN the Continental veterinarian 

 visits for the first time the provinces 

 in Great Britain, he concludes that no country 

 in the world can boast of cattle and sheep 

 having such a combination of good qualities. 

 After further peregrinations he also discovers 

 other peculiarities purely British, such, for 

 instance, as our very variable and moist 

 climate, with the liability to bleak and biting 

 winds, yet, notwithstanding this drawback, 

 the ground is admirably adapted for grazing 

 stock, particularly in its nutritive qualities. 

 Besides these, he finds there are large towns 

 with hungry thousands of people who believe 

 with •' a beefy tenacity of purpose " in flesh as 

 food, and who thus create a vast demand 

 for its production ; a process, he concludes, 

 which must give rise to much care and 

 thought, and call for the exercise of philo- 

 sophical investigation and supervision. In 

 order to render the pursuit of stock-raising 

 and stock-feeding properly remunerative, 

 he argues so much erudition in favour of the 

 British farmer, and innocently falls into the 

 common mistake that Veterinary Science 

 " holds on her way supreme." With so many 

 millions of animals, he justly says " What a 

 field for science ! What a magnificent scope 

 for talented men in which to exercise their 

 transcendental powers in the study of disease 

 — its cause, nature, progress, and mitigation, if 

 not cure ! And with such glorious oppor- 

 tunities what powerful minds there must be, 



what clever men among the veterinarians of 

 Great Britain ! With such valuable stock — 

 unsurpassed in the whole universe — what re- 

 sources the owner must have, and to which 

 he will apply for assistance in its manage- 

 ment, improvement, and preservation." 



Our friend, however, does not travel far 

 before he rapidly descends from his lofty 

 thoughts, and confesses himself to be misera- 

 bly mistaken. He argues upon false premises 

 altogether. He has been accustomed to see 

 in his own land, the hand of Science grasped 

 with fervour and enthusiasm, her valuable aid 

 cherished with jealous care, and appealed to 

 as a principle of weight and conclusive 

 authority in all questions of magnitude, and 

 especially those of national importance, and 

 he is distressed in finding the kingdom first 

 in warfare, first in civilization, first in impor- 

 tance among nations, to be the last — positively 

 behind all others — in acknowledging the re- 

 sources of Veterinary Science as conducing to 

 the welfare of our stock, which, we repeat, is 

 at present unparalleled in the world. 



In our communications with Continental 

 veterinarians who have visited us from time 

 to time, we have experienced many instances 

 in which the deepest distress and even mor- 

 tification have ensued, when, from motives 

 entirely in the cause of science and the 

 nation's prospective good — they have 

 travelled hundreds of miles, at their own 

 risk, inconvenience and cost, the utmost 



