EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 651 
sciences combined being the garden in which alone pathology 
can flourish to advantage. 
By building upon a solid foundation like this, and con- 
tinually working upon it, it is, that, treading close upon the 
heels of human medicine, veterinarians have been enabled, 
in a comparatively short time, to raise their science to a pitch, 
of which, at the present day, they have just reason to be 
proud. Surgeons do not disdain to hold converse with us 
on the advance of our science, and to confess upon what 
superior ground we stand, compared with the station of the 
old farrier, now rapidly falling into oblivion. Not to mention 
the absurdities of charms and amulets, of which their fore- 
fathers w*ere so fond, and they themselves have hardly thrown 
off the incubus ; nay, wdiich, even in this age of enlightenment, 
are still to be found haunting the descendants of Vulcan ; 
even at the present day does the alarum of absurdity oc- 
casionally utter its din in our ears, confounding and 
disgusting us with a discordance which has long been 
dispelled from the regions of science, and ought by this to 
have irretrievably sunk deep into the abyss of oblivion . The 
modern bird of paradise — science — is evidently every day 
extending her spreading wings more and more over the human 
race, every chink and corner is gradually becoming redeemed 
from darkness to enlightenment; the rude and coarse vesture 
of our ancestors is becoming exchanged for one of cultivation 
and refinement. We are all hurrying on the road leading to 
the millennium of improvement, though none of us can yet 
see far enough into the future to divine when, or at what 
point of perfection, the goal may be attained. 
Those of our profession who are old enough to remember 
St. Bel, and are able to cast back a look to the time of 
Coleman, can visibly enough discern steps of improvement 
in our art. The veterinary surgeon created by the former, 
reared and trained on the road of professional life by the 
latter, now does credit to himself and benefit to society, and, 
on occasions, heaps reputation and honours at w hich members 
of the sister science can hardly refrain from harbouring 
invidious feelings. Why, in ages to come, may not the 
veterinary profession generate a Harvey or a John Hunter! 
