XXX, 
stayed the progress of veterinary science among the general public more. 
than this one. The tendency which besets the earnest student to confine his ‘i 
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 7 
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, 
he 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 zzterfered with. 
According to such a one, the trainer’s knowledge is more useful and reliable 
than that of the cultured specialist, who has sperit 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. 
coraplexity 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 
