246 OBSERVATIONS ON THE VETERINARY ART, AND 
appeared in which their best and most conclusive arguments and 
deductions have not been drawn more or less directly from the re- 
sults of experiments made upon the lower animals. 
It is true that many of these objects have been gained without 
the assistance or intervention of any veterinarian; but a large part 
could have been gained from an observant practitioner, and that, 
too, in the very best form, and have saved much cruel because 
unnecessary experiment. And, again, there are many points 
which, obscure and often impossible to trace satisfactorily through 
upon man, could be rendered of much easier solution by the know- 
ledge to be obtained from veterinary science. It therefore follows 
that the real and positive advancers of our art must be sought for 
in our own ranks. The plodding observant practitioner, who pays 
attention at the same time to the higher branches of the science, 
is the man to whom we must look, and it is only by our own la- 
bour that we stand any chance of long continuing as a 'body. 
For more than fifty years we have avowedly been under the 
tutelage and the fostering wing of the schools of human medicine ; 
but by how much are we now better practitioners than at the 
commencement] 
This modern school ma}' date its origin with the late Professor 
Coleman ; and can we point to one single work emanating from it, 
during the first half period of its existence, whose fame will out- 
live its author 1 — and which of those that have appeared during 
the latter half period will be exempt from the same fate ? Only 
those, like the best of our old authors on farriery, which are simi- 
larly founded on practical facts , and not on theory ; for extended 
observation brings round the same train of results, and therefore 
of opinions; so that, view the subject in whatever point we may, 
it must still shew the same result; and I cannot too often or too 
urgently impress this, — that we must depend upon our own efforts 
for gaining and keeping that position in which we ought to stand. 
I have shewn that we do actually possess within ourselves the 
requisites; the more so, as we have, in reality, exercised them. 
The example which has been set us by the human medical 
practitioners ought to act as a useful lesson to us ; and if the body 
of the veterinary profession will but steadily and collectively pur- 
sue a similar course, not only will they be advancing the welfare 
of the body corporate, but, as every thing which raises the general 
body in importance also by reflection raises the members indivi- 
dually, they will thus, at the same time, be advancing their own 
interests. 
Only let us be true to ourselves, and act with equity and mo- 
deration, but firmly, and the time is not distant when we shall find 
our now unfairly neglected and despised art taking its true and 
