848 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
which is inevitably associated with the idea of using know- 
ledge and skill “ simply and solely as a means of making 
money." Are there not many in the veterinary profession, 
and perhaps in other professions, who would retort with 
astonishment, what other object can there be ? On this 
subject we are forcibly reminded of the words of a great 
master of English prose, who thus stigmatises the exclusive 
love of money as the ultimate object of all work : — 
“ But in every nation there are a vast class who are ill- 
educated, cowardly, and more or less spiteful. And with 
these people just as certainly the fee is first, and the work 
second, as with brave people the work is first, and the fee 
second. And this is no small distinction. It is the whole 
distinction in a man : distinction between life and death in 
him, between heaven and hell for him. You cannot serve 
two masters ; you must serve one or the other. If your 
work is first with God and your fee second, work is your 
master, and the Lord of work, who is God. But if your 
fee is first, and your work second, fee is your master, 
and the lord of fee, who is the devil; and not only the 
devil, but the lowest of devils, the ‘ last-exserted fiend that 
fell !' So there you have it in brief terms ; work first — you 
are God's servants ; fee first — you are the fiend's." 
Notwithstanding this strong way of putting the question, 
no one doubts the importance of the fee; most profes- 
sional men have to live by their profession, but the best 
work of their lives is never paid for at all. Veterinary 
surgeons may with truth claim that they are seldom over- 
paid for their work, not that circumstances have nothing to 
do with the question of their impelling motive. If they 
are honest workers they will prefer to lose their fee and 
cure the patient, to getting their fee and losing their patient. 
Students who are now passing through the prescribed 
curriculum will find enough of serious subjects to fill up 
their time for the short period of two sessions, and we 
counsel them not to be alarmed about the effects of unre- 
mitting attention to their studies. It takes a great deal of 
hard work with brain or hands to upset a man's digestion. 
It should be remembered that most of the popular amuse- 
ments of the day are enervating rather than invigorating in 
