AMATEUR VETS 19 



On the principle that " prevention is better 

 than cure," the predecessors of MacFadyean, 

 Flemming, Chauveau, Schwab, Fitzwygram, 

 Tuson, and a host of other equally well- 

 known modern writers, all advocated regular 

 feeding^ and sound stable-manaQfement. Horse- 

 keepers of to-day could have learnt something 

 from those who rocked the cradle of veterinary 

 before the Christian era. 



Still bearinor in mind the meaning of the 

 word amateur — " One who loves and cultivates 

 any art or science, but does not follow the one 

 preferred as a profession " — we will now turn 

 our attention to amateur vets of the nineteenth 

 century. At the same time we must acknowledge 

 a deep debt of gratitude to those who have 

 linked the past and present together. In a 

 horse-loving country like England the inhabitants 

 may say, with a certain degree of truth, that we 

 are all in a sense "vets," especially those who, 

 though they do not practice and have not 

 qualified, yet continue to collect useful material, 

 and who do not attempt to operate without the 

 indispensable training. For a little knowledge 

 is dangerous, and often, unintentionally, a cruel 

 thing. 



All who have witnessed the very unnecessary 

 barbarity of the amateur vet — it goes hand in 

 hand with ignorance — will indorse this statement. 

 People who have the merest glimmering of 

 animal diseases occasionally force irritants, in the 

 form of onions, into a mare's vagina, with the 

 object of inducing the wretched animal to stale. 



