668 
REVIEW. 
lislied by men eminent in the art, as to supply to the scientific or enquiring 
reader all the information that books can give. My object is of a less 
pretending but more practical character, namely, to point out the errors 
most commonly fallen into as the thing is done among ourselves, the effects 
of these errors, and their remedy.” 
Mr. Cuming, V.S., the author of the letter, here tells us, 
“ he was induced to come to this city* and province’ 5 at the 
instigation of the (St. John) Society, whose secretary was 
instructed to write to Professor Dick, of Edinburgh, “ to 
recommend a competent veterinary surgeon for St. John,’ 5 
and, in doing so, to state, “It was greatly desired by the 
members that the surgeon should have in connection with 
this establishment, or under his charge, a forge where horses 
could be shod in a proper manner,” showing at once that the 
object desired by the Society was, to correct the present (at 
that time) evil practices in farriery, and introduce in lieu 
thereof a system of shoeing horses at least free from such 
injurious tendency, and founded upon principles of a science 
hardly known even, and never regarded, in their shoeing 
forges. There is something in this which puts one in mind 
of the sowing of the seeds of veterinary science in Britain. 
Maiyr years ago, a French gentleman was invited to come 
over. to our country and sow the seed ; and he did so, though 
that seed — the original sower himself being cut prematurely 
off — was nurtured and brought to maturity by the skilful 
and dexterous hand of Coleman, who, in truth, was the 
founder and propagator of the Veterinary Art on scientific 
principles in Britain. 
Supposing that Mr. Cuming had such a field opened to 
him in New Brunswick as this, high must have beaten his 
breast, and inflated must it have proved on prospects so 
bright and glittering staring him in the face, however distant 
and faint might the picture have appeared. He raised his 
standard at St. John’s as the proclaimer of a new science, 
one, at least, that was not at the time in a state of cultiva- 
tion, but yet one that promised large returns, in the end, for 
extensive and laborious culture. Nor did any branch of the 
* Fredericton, North America, capital of New Brunswick, on the 
St. John. 
