INHUMAN TREATMENT OF HORSES IN ENGLAND. 105 



— can he so identify himself with his profession, as to 

 neglect no opportunity to mitigate pain, and to spare no exer- 

 tion to increase enjoyment ? This is the duty, and ought to 

 be the pride and pleasure, of every veterinary surgeon. Re- 

 gard to reputation, and sense of duty to our employer, are 

 powerful principles of action. 



" Dare we trace the education of the veterinary surgeon as 

 far as humanity is concerned ? See him at the college 

 attending a necessary, but severe operation, jostling and 

 wrestling with his fellows for the best view ; execrating the 

 struggles of the agonized animal, and mocking its groans ; 

 not one expression of commiseration heard ; not one calcu- 

 lation, how far a part, at least, of the torture may be saved, 

 consistently with the object of the operation ; the loud 

 laugh, and the ribald joke, drowning the voice of the opera- 

 tor, — or the operator himself, when not too much annoyed 

 by the shameless indecency of the scene, pausing in the 

 •midst of his work, and joining in the laugh. We have some- 

 times thought, that if a stranger were present at this unnatu- 

 ral exhibition, he would imagine that we were training for 

 purposes of brutality, and not of humanity, and be very 

 cautious how he intrusted 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 sur- 

 geons ; and hence, in a great measure, it is that so many of 

 our operations are performed in a butcher-like manner. We 

 are aware that one of the most important requisites in a sur- 

 geon is self-possession ; and that the feelings of the patient 

 should not for a moment merge in the important object of 

 the operation ; but this is different from those exhibitions in 

 which there is no previous comparison of suffering and ad- 

 vantage, and no subsequent commiseration. It cannot be 

 denied, that circumstances do sometimes attend the operations 

 of veterinary surgery, which would meet with universal 

 execration in the theatre of the human surgeon. The inevi- 

 table consequences of this on the mind of the young prac- 

 titioner have not been sufficiently calculated ; or, rather, the 

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