EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
701 
studied, comes but little short in its demands on its candidates for 
honours of what human medicine requires of its followers. It is 
true, that a horse is not obnoxious to so many maladies as frail 
and fallible human nature is heir to ; but, then, to the diseases of 
the horse are to be added those of the dog, the ox, the sheep, and 
other domesticated animals; and, though all put together may still 
fall short in number of the human catalogue, yet are there diseases 
of animals as difficult to probe the nature of, and others as impene- 
trable in their causation, as any that invade our own bodies; with 
the additional difficulty, as regards the former, of our having to deal 
with a patient devoid of the faculty of speech. It is no proof that 
our art admits of being practised by any mere pretender because 
we see persons ignorant of every principle of medicine boldly ad- 
ministering their nostrums to sick and lame animals, no more than 
it is that the “ art and mystery” of the surgeon or apothecary were 
readily acquired in times when barbers professed and practised it. 
It is not the profession but the possession of knowledge that con- 
stitutes the scientific practitioner; and to the extent that the vete- 
rinary surgeon holds such qualification does it appear to us that he 
may assert claims, as well on the score of usefulness as of ability, 
to the notice of the liberally educated classes of society. 
Granting this, however, we still feel that, for some reasons or 
other, certain drawbacks attach themselves to the name and office 
of veterinary surgeon, which so operate against his introduction 
into society as, in too many cases, to baffle all efforts on his part to 
disengage himself of them. Some individuals there are, it is true, 
who seem to raise themselves to a height beyond this tainted atmo- 
sphere; while others, with equal pretensions, find it difficult or 
impossible to do so. Certainly, that veterinarian stands the best 
chance of accomplishing this who has been brought up as what the 
world understands by a “ gentleman,” and who has had the advan- 
tages of a classical education, and so forth. Though even he will find 
times and places when and where the feeling will come upon him, 
that, after all, he must not forget that he is a veterinary surgeon. 
Without professing to name every cause which may be supposed 
to operate as a reason why a stain of any kind should attach itself 
to us in our professional character, we would avail ourselves of 
this opportunity of exposing a few of them for consideration ; 
VOL. XXIII. 5 A 
