Impediments to Veterinary Science in Great Britain 



411 



the nature of the diseases of cattle and sheep, 

 and they do not care to attend them. We 

 are sorry to admit that the statement holds 

 good in a measure, yet assert the objectors 

 have not only the remedy in their own hands, 

 but have also to bear much of the blame for 

 the cause. 



We have already given one instance in 

 which profits are meagre, and we may supple- 

 ment it by many others, such as the heavy 

 cost of drugs, large doses being so constantly 

 required, which in the practice of many men 

 are confined to the more costly agents, leav- 

 ing the barest margin for gain ; also the 

 expensive nature of instrumentsand apparatus, 

 with their rapid breakage and wear, and fre- 

 quent losses, heavy expenses in working a 

 country district, &c., &c. To these, many 

 may object by saying, "our veterinarian uses 

 no costly drugs nor instruments, and has 

 very few of either, and the latter are of the 

 rudest and most common kind," and we 

 reply, "such a fact proves how carelessly 

 he estimates his charge; how profitless it 

 must be ; and points out the necessity for a 

 thorough reform on both sides." 



But there is another error which the agricul- 

 turist and the veterinarian constantly perpe- 

 trate, both looking to their own ends, but the 

 major part of the blame rests with the stock- 

 owner. It is a common occurrence for 

 disease to break out in a herd and sudden 

 deaths to follow ; sometimes an isolated car- 

 case is found, at others, more. There are 

 also cases of various kinds of disease among 

 stock of a more tardy character, over which 

 the veterinarian has had care, and in his ab- 

 sence one or more animals die. In the first 

 instance the cause of death is fwt known ; in 

 the second the cause may be tolerably well 

 suspected, yet, nevertheless, in neither does 

 the veterinary surgeon make a special visit 

 ds\^ post mortem investigation, simply because 

 the farmer rarely sends for him to undertake 

 the task, such being probably the very re- 

 motest act he would think of. " What good 

 can there be," he argues, " in seeing a dead 

 carcase ? We know the animal is dead, and 

 there's an end on't." The veterinarian does 

 not go because he cannot afford to waste his 



time ; as far as he is concerned, all is satis- 

 factory and plain to himself, and he knows 

 quite well that such opportunities for ex- 

 amination are valuable records lost to him, 

 with which his mind would be refreshed from 

 time to time, and his discriminating powers 

 strengthened, and he would be enabled to deal 

 more successfully with the prevention, if not 

 cure, of such cases in the majority of instances. 

 This common system of neglect is pregnant 

 with some of the most awkward results, 

 especially in times of wide-spread contagious 

 diseases. What can be more alarming than 

 to proclaim the existence of a rapidly fatal 

 malady, with no other evidences than sudden 

 death and few external signs ? Yet this has 

 been committed over and over again. 

 Malignant epizootic aphtha, ignorantly styled 

 " foot-and-mouth disease," and also another 

 affection of cattle known as "malignant 

 catarrh " have frequently been mistaken for 

 " plague " in its form, and wanton slaughter 

 has followed. The conmion, curable, 

 and indigenous form of pleuro-pneumonia, in 

 the absence of well-conducted post mortem 

 investigation, is almost inevitably mistaken for 

 the rapidly spreading and fatal contagious 

 variety; and besides these we might cite 

 numerous analogous instances in which 

 sheep, pigs, horses, dogs, .are sacrificed, and 

 consequendy the farmers themselves, by the 

 neglect which lies mainly at their doors. 



We are certainly not going to exonerate 

 members of the profession who attach no 

 value to the practice of making post mor- 

 tem examinations, or even seek to impress 

 their false deductions upon the owner of 

 animals. Such investigations require nice 

 discrimination and comparison of different 

 structures; a thorough acquaintance widi 

 anatomy and physiology ; and possibly some 

 might expose their ignorance of these, as 

 well as their detestation of what they denomi- 

 nate "a dirty job." Men who reason thus 

 are not worthy of the profession calling them 

 members ; they do not promote either the in- 

 terests of their employers^ nor add to the lustre 

 of their name or the science they profess to un- 

 derstand ; and as long as they follow it entirely 

 for the filthy lucre it may yield to them, they 



