269 
THE VETERINARIAN, MAY 1, 1842. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
Pursuing our remarks on veterinary education from the Num- 
ber of our Journal for March last, it has often struck us that pupils 
of our profession leave their schools very deficient in knowledge 
of a branch of their art every one will admit to be of primary consi- 
deration, and especially so to the individual who is to get his live- 
lihood by private practice. The subject I am meaning is shoeing . 
A surgeon is not required to possess himself of the shoemaker’s 
craft; but a veterinary surgeon can in nowise dispense with a 
knowledge of horse-shoes, and horse-shoe making. That man 
cuts but a sorry figure in private practice who feels himself 
obligated to leave all the concerns of his forge in the hands of a 
foreman, not to mention the fraud or trick he subjects himself 
to. Even in the army, the common usage of the service is to 
place the farriery department of a regiment entirely under the 
management and controul of the veterinary surgeon. My idea 
is, that no pupil should leave the College with a diploma who 
cannot both make and nail on a horse-shoe with his own 
hands. There are numberless situations in private practice in the 
country in which no smith is at hand to take off or put on shoes, 
and to pare out feet; and when the veterinarian in attendance 
cannot perform all this himself, what a deal of trouble and loss of 
time is occasioned ! — to say nothing about the mischief that may 
ensue from keeping matter pent up in the foot hours or days 
longer than it needed have been confined. It may, superficially 
viewed, appear rather discreditable that a person having the dress 
and address of a gentleman should put on a leathern apron, and, 
blacksmith-like, handle and pare out a horse’s foot : in the face 
of all this, however — and of whatever might in my own younger 
days have been my opinion on the subject — I feel now convinced 
that this practical knowledge of the handicraft is indispensable to 
the constitution of a “ duly qualified” veterinary surgeon ; in proof 
of which I might — were it worth while — here cite some of the 
highest veterinary authorities. “Nay, I might mention the names 
