A PROMISING PRACTITIONER. 167 



But in sending to a professional let me strongly 

 recommend the most eminent that is to be had be 

 applied to ; if the case is a trivial one he will not 

 make it serious by ignorant treatment, and if 

 serious, of course all his skill will be wanting; 

 and as if in corroboration of the soundness of my 

 advice on this point at least, a circumstance 

 occurred only a short time ago, which I will men- 

 tion here. 



I had, within the last month, occasion to put a 

 horse at livery for a few days, where the owner of 

 the yard has about twenty horses working in street 

 cabs. Observing one of them in a coach-house, 

 and o:uessino; illness to have caused him or rather 

 her to be placed there, in accordance with my usual 

 habit I went in to see what was the matter; to 

 enlighten me on the subject an ostler came and 

 informed me the mare was " mortal bad : " this I 

 had sense enough to see, without his assurance of 

 the fact ; but as the acme of professional informa- 

 tion, he farther told me she was " bad of her in- 

 side : " now, as the unfortunate beast was blowing 

 away like a steam-boiler, my veterinary knowledge 

 went far enough to draw this inference also. 



'^ Why, man," said I, " the mare has inflamma- 

 tion of the lungs ; I don't see that anything 

 proper has been done to relieve her ; does any 

 veterinarian attend her, — I suppose not ? " 



" Oh yes," said my informant, *^ a young man 



M 4 



