stayed the progress of veterinary science among the general public more 

 than this one. The tendency which besets the earnest student to confine his 

 attention to recorded facts, rather than to the practical observation of them, 

 is one of the most serious evils, and one which we should always be on guard 

 against in every way ; but, although we might inveigh with emphasis against 

 the fearful cramming which goes on at the present day, constituting one of the 

 worst features of modern progress, we must, with still more animation, point 

 out that there are immense storehouses of knowledge for the busy student, 

 and immense fields of research for the industrious, in almost every depart- 

 ment of science. By years of painstaking care and labour, men like 

 Pasteur and Klein, and many others, are opening up vistas of new worlds of 

 knowledge. We are just beginning to peep through the dim apertures in 

 the wall of ignorance, and catch glimpses of the truth. This is the kind of 

 knowledge, and this is the kind of work which the ignorant will often 

 condemn as theoretical. 



On the other hand, the so-called practical man, whose actions from day 

 to day perpetuate the grossest ignorance and the worst delusions, is often 

 extolled. Let us not be misunderstood. This self-styled practical horseman 

 in many instances is not practical at all. His vaunted practical ability, being 

 based on false theory, is worse than useless. Perhaps, if he is a horseman, 

 ke is one who will buy a horse with the most palpable defects ; perchance he 

 will fail to recognise the symptoms connected with a diseased spinal cord, or 

 he may possibly purchase a roarer, or a horse lame in both fore feet, and 

 come home thinking he has made a good bargain. He will perhaps tell you 

 that intestinal worms are rather advantageous, than productive of injury ; 

 and that some diseases, such as strangles, should not be inte^'fered with. 

 According to such a one, the trainer's knowledge is more useful and reliable 

 than that of the cultured speciaHst, who has spent years of research into the 

 actions of the organs and tissues in health and disease, into the value of the 

 various remedial measures, by which abnormal processes can be controlled. 

 In short, it has been advanced that the amateur is as highly qualified as the 

 skilled professional man. 



It is thought by some, who forget or do not know the intricacy and 

 complexity of diseases and their varied characters, that a prescription which 

 has been given in special circumstances, to a special case, shewing particular 

 characters, can be freely used again by the owner or even by the groom, if 

 only he imagines there is a similarity, and that it might be useful. No 

 delusion is more strange than that which induces some to act habitually as 

 their own veterinary surgeons. The folly of letting animals die from want of 

 proper attention, is as extreme as that which prompts the owner to 

 undertake the doctoring of his own stock. It would seem unnecessary to 

 state that the strangely-involved symptoms of disease cannot possibly be 

 understood by an unpractised observer, if it were not a fact that great 

 annual losses are involved by want of proper care and attention. If the 

 veterinary surgeon was recognised now, as he ought to be, and will be in 

 times not far distant, a man would as soon think of making his own boots 



