964 
VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
reference. Sir Astley Cooper was wont to insist on this to his pupils in his 
lectures ; and it is said that the eminence of Drs. Monro and Parry was, in 
a great measure, ascribed to the habit they had of noting down cases as they 
occurred. 
One is apt to think that he can retain on his memory all the more im- 
portant cases in practice worth recollecting, but in this he is undoubtedly 
mistaken, as the sequel will show him. He may bear in mind the general 
features of particular cases, but this practically will avail him little. The 
form of disease in its various degrees, from incipiency to virulence, varies 
often so much, calling for corresponding treatment, that the benefit of un- 
recorded experience is in a great measure lost while memory is the only 
depository. Sir Astley Cooper used often to express his regret that so far 
country practitioners communicated their experience to the profession, and 
this arose no doubt from the want of a note-book. 
While you have a duty to perform to your employers and a duty to the 
public, you have also a duty to perform towards one another as professional 
men, and in this respect it would be well for you to follow the example of 
medical men of respectability. There are many nice points involved in this 
general injunction which can be observed most faithfully by following the 
golden ruie of <£ doing unto others as you would that others should do unto 
you.” I have always a suspicion of the soundness of a man’s ability and 
principles who is in the habit of disparaging and branding his professional 
neighbour, as if it were requisite, in order to raise his own reputation, to 
decry and blast that of his compeers. Without going into particulars, I 
would just advise you not to show officious interference in cases under the 
charge of another; and when you are the second called in do not prescribe 
or express an opinion until the other is present, and if you cannot then 
agree with him there is no necessity for your saying so to any one but him- 
self. This becoming delicacy, while it must be duly appreciated, will save, 
it may be, undue reflection on him, for you may not after all be right. And, 
moreover, unless you were honestly convinced of the inefficiency of your 
rival, you should give no encouragement to the employer to supersede him 
in your favour. Besides the sinfulness, iniquity, and unmanliness of back- 
biting, it seldom fails, in the long run, in operating to one’s own prejudice. 
On the other hand, be not too hasty in resenting imaginary or real 
offences of your rival — 
“ Rather put up with injuries than he 
A plague to him who’d be a plague to me. 
I value quiet at a price too great 
To give for my revenge so dear a rate ; 
For what do we in all our quarrels gain, 
But counterfeit delight for real pain.” 
While I have endeavoured to press upon you some of those duties which 
at the proper time, when you shall have entered on the stern realities of 
business life, allow me finally to supplicate your kindness and humanity 
towards all your patients, more especially the horse — the noblest, the most 
gentle and useful of the lower creation. To be successful practitioners 
there is more than pathology and its kindred arts to study. You know that 
the horse is a peculiarly sensitive, nervous animal ; and in order to gain his 
confidence and a proper command over him he must be treated with con- 
siderate firmness and gentleness combined, in the exercise of which none of 
you should be deficient. You have been or will be taught to adopt a 
rational and scientific mode of treatment of his diseases, in place of the 
haphazard nostrumism of those in a bygone day, and I would entreat of you 
to show your superiority likewise, in your anxiety to spare him all un- 
