OF FARRIERY. 



301 



annoyed by the shameless indecency of the 

 scene, pausing in the midst of his work, and 

 joming in the laugh. We have sometimes 

 thought that if a stranger were present at th^s 

 unnatural exhibition, he would imagine that 

 we were training for purposes of brutality, and 

 not of humanity; and be very cautious how 

 he entrusted a valuable and generous animal 

 to our tender mercies : and sure we are, that 

 scenes like these are more calculated to train 

 us to become butchers than surgeons ; and 

 hence, in a great measure, it is that so many 

 of our operations are performed in a butcher- 

 like and unprofessional manner. We are aware 

 that one of the most important requisites in a 

 surgeon is perfect self-possession ; and that the 

 feelings of the patient should, for a moment, 

 merge in the important object of the opera- 

 tion ; but this is different from those exhibi- 

 tions in which there is no previous comparison 

 of suffering and advantage, and no subsequent 

 commiseration. It cannot be denied, that cir- 

 rumstances do sometimes attend the operations 

 f veterinary surgery, which would meet with 

 iniversal execration in the theatre of the 

 numan surgeon : the inevitable consequenoe 

 of this on the mind of the young practitioner 

 has not been sufficiently calculated ; or rather, 

 the error has been, that we have not felt our- 

 selves bound to regard the feelings and the 

 sufferings of the quadruped. 



" A. more protracted residence at our places 

 of veterinary tuition, by bringing young men 

 of superior stations in life, and better previous 

 education, will, by degrees, correct these 

 principles and habits, which too much cha- 

 racterise, and yet disgrace the groom and the 

 smith. 



" Practice alone, founded on anatomical 

 knowledge, can give expertness in operation. 



The human surgeon practises first on the dead 

 subject ; and his instructor or his senior, 

 standing by, can explain the reason, the im- 

 portance, or the danger of every step. The 

 veterinary pupil has advantages far superior 

 to those which are enjoyed by the student of 

 human surgery. At the knacker's he finds a 

 constant supply of dead subjects, and he pro- 

 cures them, or the parts he wants, at a cheap 

 rate. But this does not satisfy him — he, 

 vox fancibus hceret l with fewer operations 

 generally to perform, and still fewer of im- 

 portance, practises on the Iking subject. A 

 knot of pupils go to the knacker's; they 

 bargain for some poor condemned animal ; 

 they cast him, and they cut him up, and torture 

 him alive. They perform the nerve operation 

 on each leg and on each sidej they fire him 

 on the coronet, the fetlock, the leg, the hock, 

 and the round-bone ; they insert setons in every 

 direction ; they nick him, they dock hjm, they 

 trephine him : when one is tired of cruelty, 

 another succeeds ; and, at length, perhaps they 

 terminate his sufferings by some new mode of 

 destroying life. Did the Coopers, the Greens, 

 the Brodies of the present day thus acquire 

 precision and judgment ; or, if they had, would 

 they not have been supposed to have been 

 qualifying themselves for the office of familiars 

 at the Inquisition, rather than of humane sur- 

 geons? would they not have been detested 

 while living, and held in lasting execration 

 when dead? But these operations on the 

 living subject teach the youngster how to 

 accommodate himself to the struggles of the 

 animal ; how to feather his lines with mathe- 

 matical exactness, and to acquaint himself with 

 the true colour produced by the iron when it 

 has seared the skin sufficiently deep ! Would 

 not one or two operations on the reii! patient 

 4 o 



