1870. 



NEW EXGLAND FARRIER. 



99 



in a warm place two or three days, shaking it 

 often. When the gum is thoroughly mixed 

 with the alcohol, apply two or three times per 

 day with a swab. Continue until the bunch 

 softens ; then it may be opened : then apply 

 for a few days, and the wen will be thor- 

 oughly and permanently cured. I know it, 

 for 1 have proved it. The buds gathered in 

 the early spring are best. 



For the Xew England Farmer, 



VETSEINAKY MEDICINE AND SUK- 

 QERY. — No. 1. 



I have been a practitioner of medicine and 

 surgery during a period of nearly forty years ; 

 and altbouah it has been my daily business to 

 prescribe for diseases and injuries as they 

 have afflicted human bipeds, I have not been 

 indifferent to the manner in which those things 

 are usually managed when they occur in con- 

 nection with brute quadrupeds. The result of 

 my observations in this direction are a strong 

 interest in the subject of Veterinary Medicine 

 and Surgery, and an earnest wish that the So- 

 ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 

 may, at an early day, give due attention to 

 the numberless and senseless barbarities prac- 

 ticed upon the inferior animals, by the multi- 

 tude of ignoramuses, called "horse doctors," 

 "cattle doctors," &c. 



There are within the boundaries of the 

 United States, thirty or more medical schools 

 in which Human Anatomy, and Physiology, 

 Surgery, Pathology, Materia Medica, Theory 

 and Practice of Medicine, Obstretrics, Chem- 

 istry, Botany, &c., are taught by competent 

 instructors. To enter these schools, a good 

 moral character, and a proper preparatory 

 education are required ; and to graduate from 

 them a tolerably thorough knowledge of the 

 subjects taught is demanded. Most of these 

 schools are filled from year to year with young 

 men eager to push their way into a profession 

 already crowded with numbers, and in which 

 bsit few succeed in doing more than to "get a 

 living." Yet, here is a department of the 

 healing art — a branch of medical and surgical 

 science — an honorable and lucrative profes- 

 sion — which has been, and is now, almost en- 

 tirely neglected ! 



To remedy this evil, and induce young men 

 of education and character to enter this hith- 

 erto neglected profession, a few well con- 

 ducted schools should be established at con- 

 venient and well selected points, in which 

 should be taught all the branches of science 

 that are taught in our best medical schools — 

 substituting Comparative Anatomy and Phy- 

 siology for Human. In connection with these 

 school or colleges, commodious and properly 

 arranged hospitals should be erected for the 

 treatment of diseased and wounded animals ; 

 and in them clinical lecture should be given, 

 daily, before the students, as is the case in 



the Boston, New York, and Philadelphia hos- 

 pitals. 



I am glad to know that a beginning has 

 already been made in this direction — that one 

 or two veterinary schools, worthy of the name, 

 have been established, within a few years, and 

 that in some of our larger cities, a few men 

 may be found who know something about the 

 structure of that noble animal, the horse ; and 

 of the nature, causes, and proper treatment of 

 the diseases to which he is liable. But alas, 

 how few are thus qualified ! I positively aver 

 that duiing the thirty- eight years of my pro- 

 fessional life I have not seen one ! Plenty of 

 "horse doctors," "cattle doctors," &c., may 

 be found, it is true, — one, two or more in 

 nearly every town ; but, so far as my knowl- 

 edge of them extends, they are about as igno- 

 rant of those things which a doctor should 

 know, as a horse or an ox is supposed to be 

 of algebra ! Medicus. 



Brattleboro\ Vt., 1869. 



ExGLiSH Sheep. — The advantages of Eng- 

 lish sheep are their prolificacy in breeding, 

 their good quality as nurses, their early ma- 

 turity, their profitableness for mutton, and, at 

 present, their profitableness for wool. Their 

 disadvantages are their incapacity to resist 

 hardships, their poor herding qualities, their 

 want of longevity, and their tendency to dis- 

 ease under mismanagement. By longevity we 

 do not mean merely length of life. Their 

 wool degenerates in quality and quantity, and 

 they begin to "go down hill," by the time the 

 Merino has reached its meridian ; and the lat- 

 ter keeps up to that meridian for several years. 

 In respect to disease, they but exhibit the ten- 

 dency of all highly artificial and highly forced 

 domestic animals. All such must be pecu- 

 liarly subject to maladies, especially inflamma- 

 tory maladies, when every proper physical 

 condition is not maintained. — Br. Randall in 

 Eural New Yorker. 



Baenstable Co., Mass., Agricultural Socie- 

 ty. — At the annual meeting of this Society, hol- 

 den in Barnstable, December 14, the following 

 officers were elected : — 



President— Charles C. Ecarse; Vice Presidents— 

 Levi L. Goodapeed, Matthias Hinckley; Secretti y— G. 

 F, Swift; Treasurer — Walter Chipman; Executive 

 Committee — Luther Hinckley, Amou Otie, Isaac Wbei- 

 den, Thomas Arty, M. W. Nickcraon, E. T ■.Co'jb, S. 

 B. Phinrey, H. 0oodepeed, Jos. R. Hnll. J. C. Mayo, 

 J. S. Parker, Wilaou liyder, Zenas I)jty. Delegate to 

 the Board of Agticulture in place of Hon. Glo. A. 

 King, when his term expiree — S. B. Phiriney ; Com- 

 mitt'jc on Hall and Grounds — Ansel D. Lulhyop, J;ime9 

 Otis, Ocrham Hallett; Auditing Committee — F. G. 

 Kelley, Elijah Lewis 2d, Chiui.cy Coaant; Committee 

 of Arrangements— Walter Chipman, F. B Goas, Jos. 

 M. Day, jE. N. Winalow, Nathaniel Hinckley, 



— Twenty-five pairs of large oxen have been 

 sold in the vicinity of Charleston, Vt., recently to 

 go to the lumbering swamps in other States. 



