NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 353 



prevented me; but I had some very interesting conversation with him, 

 on matters connected with his art, and he showed me a cart load of dis- 

 sections, models, and so forth. He also told me what, I must say, sur- 

 prised me. It was the fact of an old farrier, of the old school, being at 

 that time one of his pupils, and in constant attendance on his lectures. 

 This is a rare instance of ignorance and prejudice yielding to a clearer 

 light, and also a proof that practice itself, how extensive soever it may 

 be, cannot keep pace with knowledge. Mr. Dick had been lecturing on 

 the viscera of a horse, which still lay on the floor of his school, and 

 he could not have selected many better subjects, from the curious and 

 complicated structure of the parts, the diseases to which they are sub- 

 ject, and the vile treatment which they formerly met with from igno- 

 rance. But the sight of those intestines, and the association of them with 

 the old farrier, brought to my recollection that, in days still older than 

 our own, something worse than ignorance stood in the way of know- 

 ledge of the medical and veterinary art ; the dissection of a beast was 

 once considered an act of contempt of the works of God ! Democritus, 

 I believe, was the man who prevailed over this very absurd superstition 

 of his countrymen, and his answer to Hippocrates, by whom he was 

 found in the act of dissecting a dead carcase, is thus recorded to his 

 honour: '* Hsec animalia quae vides propterea seco, non Dei opera pero- 

 sus, sed fellis bilisque naturam requirans." 



I also had half an hour's conversation with Mr. Gray, an eminent vete- 

 rinary surgeon in Edinburgh, whose judgment, as well as that of Mr. 

 Dick, is highly looked up to by sportsmen. I am happy to have it in my 

 power to state, that both those gentlemen are strong opponents of the old 

 system of summering hunters abroad ; and Mr. Gray assured me, that 

 not only cases of roaring and broken wind, but confirmed navicular dis- 



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