NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



353 



For the New England Farmer. 



Gentlemen: — The accompanying communica- 

 tion, from the Cirencester and Swindon Express, 

 although written for the edification of our friends 

 on the other side of the "big pond,'' may, perhaps, 

 contain some liints of importance to their neigh- 

 bors on this side. The relation which the veteri- 

 nary art bears to a successful system of agriculture 

 is too important to be overlooked by the American 

 people, — a nation of agriculturists, and I sincerely 

 hope that the subject may receive that attention 

 which its importance demands. 

 Respectfully yours, 



Geo. II. Dadd, V. S. 



THE PRESENT CONDITION OF VETE- 

 RINARY MEDICINE, 



IN ITS RELATION TO AGRICULTURE. 



There is a short sentence in the English tongue 

 of talismanic character in the minds of many of the 

 present day — "Practical experience." What is it ? 

 The words are simple, but widely significant; ex- 

 tensive in their application, but too commonly con- 

 fined to those who least of all deserve them. With 

 the public they are the "sine qua now," the acme 

 of attainable greatness. Truly, as our facetious 

 contemporary, Punch, remarks, "truly we are a 

 practical people. Our naval architects launch a 

 frigate ; she floats too much by the head, so we 

 cut down her stern. Then she floats too much 

 by the stern, so we take off her figure-head. Then 

 she is found to be over-masted, and we put in 

 lighter masts. Then it is found she can't carry 

 canvass enough, and we take them out again. 

 Then she rolls too much, and we increase her bal- 

 last. Then her lower deck ports are under water, 

 and we plug them up. Without her lower tier 

 she does not carry metal enough, so we clap two 

 sixty-fours at her bow and two sixty-fours at her 

 stern. Then she will not make any way at all, 

 and we are forced to begin all over again ; and the 

 account concludes with an awful bill to pay.". 

 We should be sorry to underrate the importance 

 of "practical experience," even to admit a ques- 

 tion of its imperative necessity ; but does it never 

 occur to its most enthusiastic supporters, that a 

 man may spend his threescore years and ten, prac- 

 tising all the time in the wrong direction ? Science 

 is an accumulation of facts and principles deduced 

 from them, the products of numberless experiences. 

 Is it not then obvious that the man who com- 

 mences to practice without making himself first 

 familiar with the practice of those who have gone 

 before him, is attempting, single-handed, what 

 thousands combined have hardly accomplished? 

 Of what value are a few isolated facts, unless they 

 illustrate or indicate a principle? Every fact is 

 but an example of some operating law ; to be con 

 tented with the fact alone, to trust solely to "prac- 

 tical experienc," is the characteristic of the em 

 piric, the quack — not of the man of sense. 



Was it by trusting to "practical experience" 

 that Galileo discovered the motions of the planetary 

 system ? Ages of practice had not enlightened his 

 predecessors. Was it by adherence to a mere 

 physical fact that Newton recognized the force of 

 attraction? The phenomenon which roused his 

 giant mind was familiar to every schoolboy. Was 

 it by trusting to "practical experience" that our 

 glorious countryman Harvey, discovered the cir- 



culation of the blood ? His progenitors had prac- 

 tised for centuries, and still remained in ignorance. 

 In all these cases the reasoning faculties of the 

 educated man were called into energetic action ; 

 the facts were observed and noted, and further, 

 their causes were sought out, the laws which gov- 

 erned them were analyzed, until unlooked-for and 

 startling consequences became apparent. From 

 the circumstance of a falling apple was deduced 

 the force that regulates the universe : — such is 

 science ! that science which people mock and op- 

 pose. Then talk kindly of uniting with "practice !" 



"science with practice!" — as though some new 

 combination must be effected — as though science 

 should be honored by the union, instead of looking 

 on practice without science as a monster that dared 

 not show its front in civilized society. 



If under any conditions it is necessary to possess 

 knowledge — correct and systematic knowledge — 

 surely it must be where the complicated organism 

 of the animal body requires regulation ; if ever 

 practice based on imitation become positively crim- 

 inal, it must be where its rude hand is applied to 

 repair a machine of whose construction it is pro- 

 foundly ignorant, or of whose functions it retains no 

 conception. With the most learned, success in 

 the treatment of disease is not too frequent^ how 

 must it be with the ignorant? The untiring in 

 the pursuit of knowledge are fain to confess that 

 much is still beyond their ken ; the man who com- 

 bines all the requisites of his art observes with 

 pain, that his remedies too often fail ; what shall 

 we say of him who, armed with his musty prescrip- 

 tions, the property of his father's father, strong in 

 an experience of twenty years spent in the pursuit 

 of error, rashly offers his assistance ? How true 

 it is, that "fools will rush where angels fear to 

 tread!" But we are told, the man is frequently 

 successful ; of course he is ; animals will live some- 

 times in spite of all we can do to prevent them. 

 We know instances where exposure on a frosty 

 night has cured a dying horse of inflammation of his 

 lungs ; but a cold night is not therefore hailed by 

 practitioners as a sovereign remedy. A case is re- 

 corded where an unsuccessful blow from the knack- 

 er's pole-axe restored an animal suffering from the 

 last stage of lock-jaw ; but concussion to the re- 

 gion of the brain is not at present much in favor 

 as a curative agent for that disease. Because a 

 case recovers under a certain plan of treatment, it 

 by no means follows that the remedy is discovered ; 

 it is only by the aggregate of results that any rea- 

 sonable conclusion can be arrived at. 



What a significant tale is told by the records of 

 animal mortality. Examine the slaughterman's 

 receptacles in the neighborhood of populous cities ; 

 find that in one yard alone an average of three 

 hundred horses per week, for months in the year, 

 is not considered remarkable ; pursue the inquiry, 

 and learn the vicious system of management that 

 leads to this ; observe how much science is mixed 

 up with it; note how far the science of ventilation 

 is carried out ; see how the food is proportioned to 

 the digestive functions ; question the amount of 

 knowledge of the influence of noxious gases on the 

 respiratory organs ; and then answer why has 

 "practical experience" tolerated all these evils, 

 till they threatened universal destruction ? 



The preservation of health must, in the mind of 

 the true follower of his art, stand infinitely higher 

 than the cure of disease ; it may be adverse to his 



