26 
VETERINARY OBSTRETRICY. 
every twelve hours , the cow to have a little malt mash if she 
would eat it, and if she would not, she must have some good ale 
gruel administered frequently to her ; for if she was not kept up with 
something stimulating and nourishing, she would die of mere ex- 
haustion, arising from superpurgation. Of all the cases of purga- 
tion that I ever witnessed, this was the worst ; the faeces were not 
like common excrement, they were more like boiled flesh : it looked 
like, as it lay there, a lot of the bottoms of a large cook-shop stew- 
pan with the bones picked out ; it was a complete mass of skins, 
and sometimes there would come along with it pieces as large as 
an egg, round, compact, transparent, and of a yellowish white 
colour. All this I attributed to the enormous quantity of saline and 
sulphurous matter that was working all at once ; for she had had 
three or four doses similar to the one before described, and they 
all were working at once ; and it is my opinion, that if she had not 
had a constitution as hard as iron, she would have been dead 
before the time I was called in to see her. In order to remedy the 
pain and other consequences arising from this over-purgation, I 
increased my doses of sedatives and carminatives. In a day or 
two my patient improved a little; the faeces gradually assumed 
their natural colour and consistency; the appetite improved ; ru- 
mination commenced; and the secretion of milk increased every day 
a small quantity. I ordered the cow to have a little stewed linseed 
put into her malt mash twice a-day, and to have some very good 
and sweet meadow hay got for her, and to have a small dose of 
tonic and stomachic medicine twice a-day for a short time. She 
gradually recovered her wonted health and flesh, and is now a very 
good milker, and in good condition. 
In conclusion, Messrs. Editors, I beg to offer a few observations 
on your editorial remarks in the last Number of your invaluable 
Journal on the employment of unlicensed practitioners : far be it 
from me to vindicate ignorant quackery in any shape or form ; 
but, in my humble opinion, you go rather too far in your re- 
strictions on practitioners : if I mistake not, you say, “ neither 
give your sanction to any uncertificated practitioner of veterinary 
medicine or farriery.” 
Now, I think you really go rather too far here ; for it is my 
opinion that there many honest, honourable, skilful, zealous, and 
truly scientific practitioners of veterinary medicine in various parts 
of the country who never did nor ever will possess a diploma, who 
are debarred from becoming regularly certificated members of the 
profession by circumstances not entirely under their own controul : 
some by peculiar family matters, others by pecuniary circum- 
stances ; and some have been in practice a very long time indeed 
