WHEN THE HORSE IS SICK 109 



who, nevertheless, claim to be educated men and 

 always have their certificates framed and hung 

 up in their offices. These certificates are from in- 

 stitutions that no one ever heard of, and in just 

 what way they were obtained I am unable to say, 

 except that they surely did not cost very much in 

 either time or money. The owner of one of them, 

 with a candor temporarily induced by bad whisky, 

 once told me that he obtained it by attending a 

 course of ten lectures which cost him one dollar 

 each, and that he paid the lecturer five dollars 

 more for the certificate. Was that all? " Yesh, 

 that wush all." And I have no doubt that most 

 of them were obtained in this or some similar way. 



Now between these miserable fakirs and the 

 really trained and educated veterinary physician 

 the gulf is very wide indeed, so wide, in fact, that 

 they are not to be measured by the same scale of 

 comparison. And there is no danger of mistaking 

 the one for the other; they do not look, act, nor 

 talk alike. The fakirs exist because the regulars 

 cannot make a living from the practice they could 

 pick up in a country town, and thus a great many 

 farmers who need the services of a skilled veter- 

 inarian are unable to secure them. 



My advice to all who have sick horses is : Send 

 for a good veterinary physician if such a one is 

 available. If not, do not fall back upon the fakir, 



