.366 
A VISIT TO A L FORT IN 1844. 
vin so much depends upon an uninterrupted state of inaction of 
joint, that, as Gibson with truth assures us, with “ sufficient time,’* 
mild remedies will succeed ; whereas, without it, the severest will 
be pretty sure to fail. And, for my own part, I am very much 
inclined to the belief that the success derived from deep firing and 
blistering is in a measure ascribable to the extremely sore and 
rigid condition of skin produced thereby, rendering it for a consi- 
derable time, through the pain consequent on the act, next to im- 
possible to flex the diseased joint. In confirmation of the expe- 
diency, or, rather, the necessity of rest, I may mention that I have, 
on man}^ occasions, witnessed the happiest effects from confine- 
ment of spavined horses in stalls, persevered in to a great length 
of time; nor would 1, for my own part, in a case where rest, and 
duration of rest, could not be obtained, counsel any veterinarian 
to undertake the treatment of spavin. Even under all favourable 
circumstances, he foreknows his liability to failure, and most as- 
suredly it becomes a duty he owes himself, if not his patient, to 
diminish that liability to the uttermost. When consulted, there- 
fore, on the curability of spavin, let the practitioner take care to 
bargain closely with his employer for sufficient time for repose for 
his patient. 
A VISIT TO ALFORT IN 1844. 
By £&. 
In the present age of refinement in every department of science, 
and more especially in those in which the principles of humanity 
are concerned — be they for man or beast — it might naturally be 
expected that, in our public educational institutions, those atrocious 
barbarities that have been too often perpetrated by our experi- 
mental physiologists would, in a corresponding ratio, have been 
improved or entirely laid aside. Far be it from us to discard the 
further adoption, or even the necessity of experimental physiology, 
for the more perfect elucidation of our knowledge of the functions 
of the animal organism; but its indiscriminate adoption on every, 
and in the most trivial circumstances, without any definite object 
being in view, or the experimenters themselves being possessed of 
that knowledge of structure and function which will enable them 
to understand their various phenomena, we cannot but most ear- 
nestly decry, and hold out to public sympathy. It may, indeed, be 
said, and with perfect truth, what would have been our knowledge 
at the present day in all those departments of practical medicine 
and surgery for which our age is so especially distinguished, had 
