WHEN THE HORSE IS SICK 107 



veterinarians, in the true sense of the word, are 

 to be found. There are so-called veterinarians 

 everywhere, but they are, for the most part, ig- 

 norant men, and of all human ills, the ignoramus 

 who, by sheer bluff and imposition on the credulity 

 of others, sets himself up as a veterinary practi- 

 tioner is one of the worst. 



Perhaps a little light on the qualifications of 

 these gentlemen and the basis of their claim as 

 " doctors " may be of interest. They are of two 

 kinds. The first, as a rule, were coachmen or 

 grooms in the first place, and having learned by 

 experience the remedies and treatment for one or 

 two common ailments, set up, on the strength of 

 this meager knowledge, as general practitioners — 

 in which role, of course, they are fakirs, pure and 

 simple. 



One man that I knew of this type, an Irishman, 

 had the recipe for a blister ointment, which he 

 kept a profound secret and which — especially in 

 the treatment of spavins and bony enlargements — 

 was by far the best that I ever used. He had once 

 been, he told me, groom for a well-known vet- 

 erinary physician in the old country, from whom 

 he learned the recipe. Now this blister ointment 

 was the only remedy that he knew how to make or 

 how to use, and if he had confined himself solely 

 to making and selling it, he would have been of 



