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VETERINARY MEDICINE IN AUSTRALIA. 
2. What we practise ? 
It may be truly stated that in practice no two cases are 
exactly similar, and while as students we are taught to gene- 
ralise our ideas, we find that afterwards we are frequently 
obliged to particularise and to modify our received notions 
on certain subjects. To no locality do I apprehend are these 
remarks more applicable than to Australia ; for not only 
do we occasionally meet with cases absolutely new to us, 
but frequently we come across some so widely differing from 
those described as to be hardly worthy of the same name ; 
and is it not in cases like these that the genuine prac- 
titioner is discovered and appreciated ? Assuredly yes ; for 
it is science alone that guides us under such circumstances. 
It is fortunate for the practitioner at the Antipodes that he 
has never to contend with those formidable, and I may say 
unconquerable diseases, that once were unfortunately frequent 
enough in Europe, but now are happily rare — I allude to 
glanders, farcy, hydrophobia, &c. Their absence it is difficult 
perhaps to account for. We hear divers speculations that it 
is referable to some peculiar atmospheric influence ; but after 
all these beautiful theories we appear to be as far from the 
real or proximate cause as ever. The human subject equally 
boasts his freedom from many of the malignant diseases that 
once afflicted him at home. It is superfluous to inform your 
readers on a subject which, doubtless, they are all well ac- 
quainted with, the noted hardiness and great powers of 
endurance of the Australian horse. And whilst this fact 
ought to subject him less to disease, it has, also, in a measure 
rendered him more liable to it from his great powers being 
often overtaxed. Heretofore the domestic arrangements for 
the horse were of a very humble character, in fact he lived 
comparatively in a state of nature, and if he ee ailed ” Nature 
was his doctor; for it cannot be supposed that he did not 
“ ail” occasionally, since man never yet brought any animal 
into his service that he did not to a certain extent entail 
some of the evils which he himself is heir to ; but it is only 
lately we may say that the horse has engaged the serious 
attention of his owner. The rough and ragged coat of three 
years, like that of his master, is changed to the smooth and 
glossy one ; his roofless shed, if once any at all, is now a com- 
fortable stable : in short, he has become domesticated, and as 
a consequence he is subject to most of the ills that domestica- 
tion inflicts, therefore is it that art now is required where 
Nature of herself would be insufficient. But what, you will 
ask, are the diseases that chiefly prevail here ? I have already 
