THE EDUCATION OF THE VETERINARY PUPIL. 335 
In small country towns, where the price of shoeing is low, the 
veterinary surgeon, being mostly from home, will seldom find the 
shoeing department pay its expenses ; and it will answer his end 
better to make terms with a respectable smith for the use of his 
shop. 
If a veterinary surgeon is to be able to make shoes and put 
them on, he ought, I suppose, to do so cleverly ; but how much 
time would this require? Would it not take years? I think it 
would, especially if, as proposed, the art of nail-making is to be 
added ; and then, without constant practice, how is the hand to 
be kept in ? Surely such knowledge is not “ indispensable to 
the constitution of a duly qualified veterinary surgeon.” How 
many young men never could acquire it! I suppose many vete- 
rinary surgeons, who do not keep forges, take apprentices, and 
such apprentices must serve double time if they are to learn the 
shoeing trade too ; or, suppose that a young man had been 
studying as a human surgeon, and chose to become a veterinary 
one, would he not give up all thought of the latter profession if 
he is to learn to shoe horses and make horse-shoes, to say nothing 
about horse-nails? Instead of this knowledge being “ indis- 
pensable to the veterinary surgeon,” as such, I think, the neces- 
sity of acquiring it forms the exception, and not the rule. Would 
the late respected Professor Coleman ever have become a veteri- 
nary surgeon on the proposed condition ? 
I cannot but think that, in general, it is a sufficient qualifica- 
tion for a veterinary surgeon, in these matters, that he should 
understand how the different kinds of horses’ feet ought to be 
shod ; of course, he will then know when they are improperly shod. 
He should also be able to take a shoe off skilfully, and put it on 
again in a temporary way; and he should be clever in paring out 
a horse’s foot. I can only say that, after a practice of between 
twenty and thirty years, I have found this amount of knowledge, 
on this subject, sufficient ; but do not mean to say that the amount 
of knowledge proposed in your leading article is not useful to a 
certain degree where it happens to be possessed. I kept a forge for 
many years, and now let it. I know the disadvantages of keep- 
ing one in a country practice, and, certainly, shall not keep one 
again . 
I have hastily penned these few observations, I hope in a 
courteous spirit, and, if you accept them, it will be for what they 
are worth, and no more ; assuring you that I highly esteem the 
gentleman whose initial is appended to the article here animad- 
verted upon, and I feel certain that he will not require any 
apology for the liberty I am taking. 
