524 THE SO-CALLED REMOVAL OF THE LAMPAS. 
sole, cropping, nostril and anus slitting, excision of the barbs, 
the use of molten lead, and applications of the like kind. But 
one’s surprise naturally enough ceases to exist when one sees 
educated veterinary surgeons giving their countenance to 
the custom, by performing it at their client’s suggestion, 
without a word pro or con> the fee being with them, unfortu- 
nately, the weightiest consideration. Thus it is that this 
wanton system is perpetuated, and when men of less sordid 
motives raise their voices against it they are less esteemed 
because men of unquestionable repute in the profession 
practice that , the non-performance of which has in some 
measure detracted from their more humane but less mercenary 
brethren. Oh, say they, but public opinion is strong, and if 
we hope for popularity and success, we must act in accord- 
ance with such opinion, erratic though it be ; and so they 
support this most strange prejudice. 
Is this a desirable consummation ? Would it not be in- 
finitely more to our credit were we to take the field against 
all errors, and more particularly against those which have for 
their victim the noble creature whose claim on our sympathies 
is truly great, and whom it is our privileged duty to shield 
from the effects of accident and disease, and to afford pro- 
tection against cruelty? If, however, we continue in the 
pursuit of practices empirically cruel as this, shall we not 
continue to be held in deservedly low estimation by the Well 
informed among our employers? who I am persuaded know, 
as well as we do, that the “fulness” in a young horse’s mouth 
is not disease, but only a beautiful and wise provision of 
Nature for facilitating and perfecting dentition; and yet that 
which is so obviously adapted to the desired process is by us 
opposed with as much good will as if we thought her way- 
ward ignorance needed all our efforts to curb her. 
There are a variety of modes of performing the operation, 
differing only in degree of barbarity. Some only apply the 
heated instrument around the inner margins of the incisor 
teeth, and others roast a portion of the palate in the same 
space. I have seen a very large portion of the palate, close 
to the bony roof of the mouth, thus removed entirely. But, 
however performed, whether from ignorance or mercenary 
perversion of judgment, I doubt not you will aid me in its 
deprecation. Let us rather reason with our clients, for 
although reason may not pay , it will eventually prove politic. 
We may allow that there is present increased vascularity with 
tumefaction, and that a slight topical venesection or scarifica- 
tion might be admitted, but, in the name of pity, let us eschew 
barbarity. 
