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query to the proprietors of the different stage lines or rail- 

 roads, we invariably receive a most extraordinary answer 

 from both parties, and that is, "These men have worked 

 around horses all their lives, and therefore they are as well 

 qualified to doctor horses as any surgeon." This answer we 

 get from men in New York, Chicago, or California, and it is 

 very hard to question either its authority or infallibility. 



Should we, however, address the proprietor of a circus or 

 hippodrome on the same subject (Mr. Barnum, for example,) 

 he shall tell us that his men have spent their lives vaulting 

 over horses' backs and other feats of horsemanship, and of 

 course they are qualified to treat all cases of disease in the 

 horse as well as any doctor. Of these two classes of persons, 

 viz., those who spend their lives working around horses, and 

 those persons whose chief business is vaulting over horses' 

 backs, my own candid and unprejudiced opinion is, that the 

 men who spend their lives vaulting over horses, must surely 

 have better and more exalted notions of the treatment of sick 

 horses than men who merely work around them. 



However, there is a wonderful unanimity of opinion be- 

 tween these two classes of surgeons, (namely the men who 

 spend their lives working around horses and the men who 

 spend their lives jumping over horses), and that is, that very 

 powerful remedies are always indicated in the simplest 

 "injury to which the horse is subject. 



They often disagree as to the origin and diagnosis of the 

 disease, but with regard to the remedies they are unanimous. 



This may be readily accounted for when we glance at their 

 text book. Most of the agents or prescriptions they employ 

 are taken from a work entitled the " Quarryman's Pharmacy." 

 They evidently believe that such agents as are good for 

 blasting rocks must surely be good for curing lame horses. 



Perhaps there are no class of injuries requiring such prompt 

 and judicious treatment as diseases of the feet and limbs of 

 solipedes, none more readily cured by timely measures, nor, 

 on the other hand, more disastrous results follow from neglect 



