4 io STABLE SERVANTS. 



tempered and patient with horses. A man who is capable of 

 "venting his rage" on a horse, no matter what provocation 

 he may have received from the animal, should never be 

 allowed inside a stable. 



VETERINARY SURGEONS AND GROOMS. 

 The large majority of grooms and coachmen who are in 

 charge of horses, never like to see a veterinary surgeon within 

 their stable walls, except when they want to shift on his 

 shoulders the responsibility of the approaching death of a 

 sick horse which they have vainly tried to cure by means of 

 their own nostrums. The cause of this impatience to receive 

 professional advice has long been a mystery to me. Formerly, 

 I was accustomed to put it down to fear lest the attendance 

 of the veterinarian might curtail the amount of " perks " to 

 be obtained from bills for medicine run up by the stableman. 

 But since I have found that this antagonism is shared by 

 French, German, Italian, and even Russian stable autocrats, 

 whose all round 10 per cent, is in no danger of interference, 

 I have attributed it to the jealousy of ignorance, especially 

 as I have been told by grooms and coachmen of many 

 nationalities, that they know quite as much about the treat- 

 ment of sick horses as any veterinary surgeon. As they 

 have not gone through the course of study required for 

 obtaining the diploma of the R.C.V.S. ; they are manifestly 

 incapable of forming an accurate opinion on the value of 

 such instruction. Besides, if the medical and surgical attain- 

 ments of veterinary surgeons were not superior to those of 

 grooms and coachmen, who are required to possess no 

 educational qualification of any kind, why should it be 

 necessary, as it undoubtedly is, for veterinary students to 

 devote years of hard theoretical and practical study in order 

 to pass their examinations ? I feel that I am specially well 

 qualified to form a sound opinion on this subject ; for after 



