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The Country Gentleman's Magazine 



shall not fail to observe how the practitioners 

 are distributed to the detriment of our 

 cattle breeding and rearing districts. For 

 the most part they are located in large towns, 

 around which they travel in different direc- 

 tions, probably not more than 5 or 6 miles. 

 In the whole county of Lancaster, for ex- 

 ample, there loi veterinary surgeons, 26 of 

 whom are residing in Manchester, 22 in 

 Liverpool, 6 in Bolton, and 3 in Oldham, 

 leaving 44 for the other towns and country 

 districts. In Middlesex there are 118, and 

 of these 112 reside in London and outskirts. 

 In Yorkshire there are 116 veterinary sur- 

 geons, three or four being located in every 

 large town, and every small one as in Lan- 

 cashire, having one or more ; in one or two 

 instances only are villages supphed. And 

 this is the general plan throughout England, 

 Ireland, and Scotland, to the almost exclu- 

 sion of the rural districts. 



The cause for this is obvious. In all towns 

 there are a number of horses kept for trade 

 or manufacturing purposes, pleasure, &c., 

 and these yield a larger and more continuous 

 demand for medical care and attention than 

 the country districts do ; payments are also 

 made at shorter intervals, and profits as well 

 as charges are considerably higher. Besides, 

 the veterinary surgeon may have more genial 

 associations in town than in country, his 

 work is more cleanly, and he therefore can 

 appear more respectable. A country practice, 

 on the other hand, is very irregular in con- 

 sequence of changes of temperature, &c. j 

 long distances have to be traversed, and at 

 all hours ; there is much dirty work to be 

 done, and, with these inconveniences the 

 veterinary surgeon, if he is a man of educa- 

 tion, is shut out from society in which he can 

 move with honour and freedom, and com- 

 pelled to work for low fees in competition 

 with two or three unlettered quack doctors, 

 who have never spent an hour or a penny in 

 the acquisition of sound knowledge, and who 

 eventually starve him out by working lower 

 than he honestly can. Practitioners trying 

 hard to work up country connexions suffer 

 more than many suppose. We have known 

 many instances of a man being sent for miles 



to visit some case, from the nature of which 

 he is necessitated to take his horse and gig, 

 pay the cost of one or two tolls, spend con- 

 siderable time with his patient, and his nett 

 profits do not amount to the pay of a mecha- 

 nic. Besides which, he rarely receives ready 

 cash, except for isolated operations, and his 

 accounts are paid only at very long intervals 

 — seldom under twelve months. 



With such profits, and very irregular calls, 

 men who have been directly brought up 

 cannot live. The itinerant quack will wander 

 over miles of country with pockets crammed 

 with medicines, which he never fails to dis- 

 pose of; and when he is hungry a hunch of 

 bread and cheese, with probably a few onions, 

 form a good repast, and these are still more 

 congenial to his taste, if he can wash them 

 down with copious draughts of ale. He loafs 

 about with grooms, stablemen, and cowherds, 

 and will smoke, drink, and swear with the 

 best of them. His estabUshment is usually 

 very small, and costs little to support ; being 

 a bird of passage, he is as content at the pot- 

 house as if he were in his own parlour. His 

 brains are so replete with knowledge that he 

 never needs to consult books for anything 

 different from that which he practises. His 

 accounts are not usually of long standing, 

 for he usually draws as he goes on, not unfre- 

 quently, and doubtless in ignorance, drawing 

 more than is due to him, on which occasions 

 he never fails to find that such a cow wants 

 a " bit of a drink," or a horse requires a ball, 

 and so matters are set somewhat straight. 



Such is the state now too common in this 

 country, and to which, at the present time, 

 we may attribute the almost entire absence of 

 means by which the spread of diseases among 

 our cattle and sheep might be prevented. 

 It is impossible to organize any suitable 

 system where men of such profound igno- 

 rance prevail, and have the ear of men who 

 should know more of what belongs to stock 

 preservation. A premium is set upon a 

 system of drugging, and even poisoning, of 

 animals, while there are no steps whatever 

 taken towards avoiding the evils which gene- 

 rate the affection. It has been argued that 

 veterinary surgeons generally are ignorant of 



