OF VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
143 
the inventions that have been had recourse to in order to alleviate 
lameness and protect the foot; each and all furnish abundant 
evidence of the improved state of veterinary knowledge. 
In proportion as anatomy, physiology, and pathology, are still 
more perfectly understood and described, we shall be able yet 
more to simplify diseases; we shall be able more judiciously to 
apply our remedies, and we shall attain more just principles 
upon which to base our operative surgery. We may then look 
forward with more confidence towards obtaining a substitute for 
that dernier resort, the actual cautery. 
There is something more besides this acquaintance with the 
anatomical structure, &c. of the animals committed to our charge 
that comes under the denomination of professional knowledge, and 
which knowledge is essentially necessary to a veterinary surgeon’s 
education, — I mean chemistry, materia medica, pharmacy, and 
last, though not least, veterinary jurisprudence. What place, 
what station shall we assign to these in the present state of vete- 
rinary science? It is evidently the darker side of the picture, for 
it is only of late years that the former of them have been admit- 
ted within the pale of veterinary knowledge : they must, how- 
ever, be considered as essentials to every one who wishes to rise 
in the profession, and, through him, as accelerators to the future 
progress of our science. For the want of the due cultivation of 
these respective parts of veterinary science we are wholly in- 
debted to others for our chemical knowledge. We shall not 
overstretch the mark when we say we have no materia medica or 
manual of pharmacy worthy of the name ; and as to veterinary 
jurisprudence— a part of veterinary knowledge which it is of the 
utmost importance we should excel in — what is it ? A by- 
word among the legal profession, a laughing-stock for the sensi- 
ble portion of society, a blank in the pages of the veterinary 
dictionary, and a stain on the character of the profession. Let 
the recent account of a trial be read over, and we shall have am- 
ple evidence of the truth of the foregoing remark. I shall not 
stop in this part of my letter to inquire further into this matter, 
as I shall recur again to this portion of my subject when speaking 
on veterinary education. For the present, I content myself with 
stating, that we want a corrected , connected standard of veteri- 
nary jurisprudence, based upon anatomical, physiological, and 
pathological truth and investigation. We want our vete- 
rinary surgeons to adhere to such a fixed standard — we want 
them to make themselves more acquainted with this long neg- 
lected part of their knowledge — we want their honest opinions as 
professional individuals, as men having a character at stake, 
unprejudiced and unbiassed ; and till we have this, we shall 
always be liable to such exhibitions as the recent one, which we 
