PRESENT CONDITION OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 93 
among the most important bodies in the state ; and though we can- 
not expect to take an equal rank with them, yet by like endea- 
vours we may come very close behind them, by the inculcation of 
correct ideas into the minds of those who are entering into the pro- 
fession, and by giving every opportunity for instruction to those 
who may be in the position of apprentices ; for this, after all, though 
looked on by some as a derogatory practice, is the only method by 
which any useful knowledge is to be obtained ; and though the 
medical schools oftentimes do not require it, we cannot do so : they 
have large hospitals, dispensaries, work-houses, and that unnoticed 
but really valuable field of observation which comes under the head 
of “ advice gratis.” Besides, it is man studying man , and therefore 
a kindred feeling exists. Not so with us : we cannot have ex- 
tensive and numerous hospitals : the only dispensaries that can 
exist are the establishments of private practitioners. As to that 
which I have put under the head of “ advice gratis,” it is, prac- 
tically, a failure. I tried it for several years ; but the applications 
were so few that it, in truth, must be looked on as a mere thing 
in name ; because those who are able, in this country, to keep an 
animal, are able to pay for what assistance may be required. There 
may be a few localities in which it may partially succeed, Edin- 
burgh for instance ; but I much doubt if it is of the value which 
has been attributed to it ; at all events, it has not shewn by its 
fruits that much ought to be expected from it. 
Again ; the medical schools require not less than four years’ 
attendance at the institutions for the sick and in the schools, and 
the period is being constantly extended : and all this is required 
to produce one sufficiently informed to commence as a practitioner 
in a profession easier of attainment than our own. I repeat, and 
maintain from personal knowledge, obtained by the close and un- 
remitting study in the medical schools of the one for three years , 
and of the other from my very earliest boyhood, that the medical, 
with all its complications, is easier of attainment than the veterinary 
art ; and with this staring us in the face we have had, for more 
than half a century, men thrown out on the public with mere dog- 
matical ideas in the place of principles, without any training in those 
essentials, trifles as they may seem, yet really of vast importance, 
and even the erroneous dogmas which they had impressed on them 
exceedingly scanty (here all the better), and in the place of years 
of study often only as many months sufficed for the obtainment of 
the thing miscalled a “ Diploma.” For this state of matters there 
is but one remedy, divided into two portions ; first, by apprentice- 
ship to learn the minutiae and handiness of practical knowledge ; 
second, by increased periods of study at the schools to imbibe the 
VOL. XX. 0 
