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THE VETERINARIAN, OCTOBER l, 1856. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. 
Cicero. 
“WHAT NOT TO DO, AND WHAT TO DO.” 
It was well observed by Mr. Hawthorn, in a communica- 
tion inserted in a previous number of this Journal, that “ a 
good doctor exhibits his skill as much in knowing what not 
to do as in knowing what to do.” Little doubt have we that 
many a patient has succumbed to the doctor’s skill, or the 
want of it, rather than to the disease. But “ dead men,” and 
dead horses, too, “ tell no tales. 5 ’ 
It is this ability to determine what is to he done, and when, 
which distinguishes the man who is conversant with principles 
from the mere pretender or empiric; and at once draws the 
broad line of demarcation between him whose practice is 
based on science and him whose treatment of disease con- 
sists in the employment of a code of musty recipes, including 
the use of agents the modus operandi of not one of which, 
perhaps, he is acquainted with ; since it has never been his 
to inquire into the reason of things, the whys and the where- 
fores, but he has always been contented to do as others have 
done before him Such men never do, and never can, contri- 
bute to the advancement of science ; for should they by chance 
develope a principle they are altogether unconscious of it, 
and, being thus ignorant, they let it slip. With them prac- 
tice is a mere routine or custom ; a course to be over and 
over again followed, whatever may be the circumstances that 
may arise, or however these may call for the exercise of 
thought and of judgment. 
Nor would we exhaust our censure on these persons alone, 
such being, perhaps, scarcely worth the noticing; but we 
fear that not a little of this system has found its way where it 
ought not to have done ; and many from whom we have a right 
