IN THE "ABILENE" COUNTRY 95 



The "heavy" surgery case off his hands, Dr. 

 Asa proceeded to "work on" the sweeneyed mule. 

 But not before an argument with the farmer on 

 the name "sweeney" had been gone through. The 

 farmer wanted to know why the condition was 

 called sweeney. Dr. Asa informed him that it 

 was not called "sweeney" where he came from 

 (Michigan) ; there in Michigan they called it 

 shoulder aterphy, he said. How anybody could 

 call the condition "sweeney" was more than he 

 could understand, he said; why, what was 

 "sweeney" but an Irishman's name anyhow, and 

 couldn't the farmer see that he was entirely 

 wrong? This was old Dr. Asa every time; no 

 matter how plain the case, or how right the 

 farmer, Dr. Asa always attempted to show him 

 that he was "way off" before he did anything for 

 the animal. Sometimes the argument got so hot 

 that the owner of the animal left in disgust; at 

 other times Dr. Asa would chase him away for 

 being "too smart." "If you know so gosh darned 

 much about it," he would say, "what the dickens 

 you coming around here for to have me fix your 

 horse up?" 



At the time of which I write there were not 

 over twenty-five graduate veterinarians in prac- 

 tice in the whole state of Texas, and some of the 

 "stunts" enacted in the name of veterinary 

 science were well worth seeing. 



But let us return to the cotton- farmer with the 

 "sweeneyed" mule. Dr. Asa apparently con- 

 vinced him that sweeney was a name to be men- 



