246 On the Domestic Veterinary Treatment of 
that there is a considerable scope for the possibility of error ; 
and therefore I conclude this Report with the following quota- 
tion from Professor Johnston's previously cited article, " On the 
Feedins: values of the ^Natural and Artificial Grasses in different 
States of Dryness," published in the ' Transactions of the High- 
land and Agricultural Society of Scotland for 1843' (p. 57): — 
" Much knowledge remains yet to be acquired in reference to 
the most economical mode of using green crops as food for 
cattle. It is true that there exists much valuable information 
floating among intelligent practical men, but when the un- 
prejudiced inquirer begins to collect, with the view of fixing 
this floating knowledge, he meets with opinions so contradic- 
tory, even from men of equal intelligence and skill, that he 
must be well acquainted with those causes which affect the 
results of agricultural operations in different localities before he 
can hope to approach the truth, or to extract anything like 
general principles from the testimony of practical men alone. 
The opinions of practical agriculturists are derived in general 
from their own experience, and from that of their neighbours, 
in a limited district only. In distant parts of the country, we 
know that these opinions are often quite opposed to each other ; 
yet the phenomena from which the cultivators of each province 
have deduced their opposite opinions, are the natural results of 
the same general laws. It is these laws which the philosophical 
agriculturist seeks to discover." 
y. — On the Domestic Veterinary Treatment of the Animals of 
the Farm. By Professor G. T. BroWN, of the Agricultural 
Department of the Privy Council. 
It would be quite easy to prove by reference to the facts of 
physiology, that the animal organism is a delicate and com- 
plicated piece of mechanism, and that the attempt to rectify any 
errors in its structure or functions is likely to result in disaster, 
unless the effort is made by one who is familiar with all the 
details of the machinery. This line of argument is commonly 
adopted, but it makes no impression on those to whom it is 
addressed ; and the savants who employ it are so far incon- 
sistent advocates of their own principles, that they publish 
works on the diseases of stock, and the methods of cure, and 
dedicate their books to the agriculturists of the country. The 
fact is that, whether recognised by scientific men or not, 
domestic medicine, both in application to men and the lower 
animals, is an institution which cannot be abolished, and it 
