Diseases of Domestic Animals. xxxvii 



public attention will be called to the subject, and that men 

 of education will think it no derogation from their medical 

 character, to become acquainted with the diseases of cattle, 

 or to lend their aid in the removal of them when required ; 

 and thus rescue our useful animals from the unqualified 

 hands to whose care they must otherwise, as at present, from 

 necessity be committed. 



A distinction must be made between veterinary medicine 

 and farriery. The first is founded upon science, whereas 

 farriery disclaiming any connexion with science, proves itself 

 a mere practice, habit or routine, and as it rests on nothing 

 regular or solid, so it must ever be variable. The course of 

 veterinary medicine and farriery are indeed the same, but 

 with this difference, that the former condescends to admit a 

 guide, while the latter prefers to ramble at risk and hazard. 

 Were their objects any way different, farriery would have a 

 plea for rejecting the assistance of veterinary science, found- 

 ed on the peculiarity of its own object. But they are strict- 

 ly the same, so that the only alternative might be in the su- 

 perior excellence of the means by which it endeavours to ac- 

 quire it. But we know that farriery pretends to no such 

 means, that its practice is a collection of prescriptions and 

 operations, without rule or precision, communicable to any 

 body, in the form of a pamphlet. AVith this view of the 

 subject, how is it possible that we can sacrifice so much of 

 our common prudence, as to give to it any portion of that 

 confidence which medicine itself is only capable of exacting 

 from us, in proportion as it exhibits a quite opposite cha- 

 racter.50 



Such being the facts with respect to the knowledge re- 

 quired for the veterinary practitioner, and such the distinc- 

 tion between veterinary science and farriery, let us inquire 

 into the inducements and necessity that exist for acquiring 

 the knowledge of this branch of the medical profession. 



1. The importance of the subject. 



The argument derived from this source rests on the ralne 



