VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
27 
nary surgeon ! No ! he took it for granted he was so, and that 
our science was as defective as the fellow’s evidence. 1 felt I 
could not suffer the profession to be thus publicly stigmatized, and 
accordingly answered his letter (a copy of which I transmit you). 
In it I endeavoured to point out the difference between the quali- 
fied and unqualified. The editor, from some unexplained cause, 
omitted to insert my reply. 
Do not such proceedings as the above call loudly for “ some- 
thing to be done ?” What is that something to be ? You write 
thus — “The only equitable and at all satisfactory mode, as it ap- 
pears to us, in which this difficulty could be overcome would be 
to draw a line, back to some agreed-on period of time, and enact 
that practitioners in farriery in practice before that time should be 
admitted as qualified evidence; but that, from and after the said 
date, every person appearing in court to give evidence on veteri- 
nary matters should be required to produce a diploma of qualifica- 
tion from one or other of the veterinary colleges.” With this 
plan you will pardon me when I say I cannot agree ; some reasons 
for which I will endeavour to state. We will admit there are 
many respectable, honest, and industrious men who practise vete- 
rinary surgery without diplomas, to whose evidence we could offer 
no objection. But, where you find one such man, you find scores 
that are ignorant, depraved, and illiterate ; many belonging to the 
very lowest grades of society, without a spark of honour or up- 
right feeling, who will stoop to any artifice, and have recourse to 
the most diabolical means to gull the unsuspecting and credulous 
with their nostrums and charms. 
From the high position you have always held, Mr. Editor, as 
an army veterinary surgeon, you can have had but few, if any, 
opportunities of being personally thrown in contact with this lower 
class of practitioners. You may think my remarks are severe ; 
but the unfortunate members of the profession whose hard lot it is 
to be located in agricultural districts, where the holdings are small, 
know it to be an “ o’er true tale.” For there these pests abound. 
We see the farmer constantly robbed of his suffering animals by 
the grossest maltreatment. On expostulating with them, as I have 
myself done, upon the folly of continuing to employ such men, how 
has my advice been received 1 They turn upon me, and say, “ two 
of a trade never agree !” Can you believe, Sir, that any of your 
professional brethren are exposed to such indignities'! Is it not 
sufficient to make one wince to the purpose, to be placed on an 
equality with the men possessing the most unblushing effrontery, 
coupled with the most egregious ignorance? Now, Mr. Editor, if 
the plan you propose was adopted, we must meet them in courts 
of justice as brethren ; we must lower our own professional cha- 
