496 
MYoITlS. 
comprise the large bulk of our body, if they misjudge, if they act 
in error, do so not intentionally : it is hard to condemn those who 
would willingly do better if they knew but the way. 
How great a debt do those who are placed as teachers owe to 
humanity at large ! how important is their position, the inculcation 
of truth and knowledge ! how much have those who neglect their 
duties to answer for ; not only to those who have placed themselves 
under their tuition, but to the community at large ; and are we to 
consider that the commands as given to us by the inspired writers 
as unworthy of attention] Are we not expressly commanded. to 
succour the animal that is in distress] 
Then how much are all interested in the pursuit of our art. Do 
we blame the savage, the untaught, for faults, nay, crimes, which 
in the civilized, the taught, the trained, we punish with the utmost 
severity ] — assuredly not ; therefore do not let us blame those who 
are but little taught, and in that little much that is erroneous. 
Carefully inquire into the amount of what has been taught in our- 
professional schools for the last half century, and how small, how 
insignificant is the result ; actually less of the really valuable prac- 
tical part of our art than was known and practised by the old far- 
riers, a class that was to be superseded ; and if we inquire into the 
advances that have been really made — and they are numerous — from 
whence have they come ] from the single, too often unaided, ex- 
ertions of individuals who have endeavoured to rescue their art, 
both by precept and example, from its ignorance, its barbarism ; 
look at the list — not a small one — many are gone, some still remain, 
and others are rising — then inquire how they obtained their know- 
ledge; the answer is always a universal one, — by their own labours, 
by the study of the laws of nature. 
When I look around and see such men as Moorcroft, Youatt, 
the Fields, the Turners, Percivall, the Goodwins, et hoc genus 
omne , steadily pursuing the same course for years, I cannot think 
that our art will for ever remain in the degraded position into which 
it has been thrust. Much that has been done may be erroneous — 
no man can be perfect; but yet enough remains to stamp their 
labours with high value : there is this one important point clearly 
manifest, that truth is the one grand object, theory and dogma are 
alike systematically eschewed. 
I speak feelingly, strongly, it may be, though I do not mean it 
harshly ; but I cannot bury in oblivion the fact that I have spent 
many weary years, the best of my life, in endeavouring to forget ; 
for literally, I have had to unlearn that which I had been taught in 
our schools, and for the attainment of any principles whatever I had 
to seek them in the schools of human medicine. Lessons such as 
