438 ON THE PRESENT EPIDEMIC AMONG CA*TTLE. 
get very troublesome diseases from bad saddles. The fact is, 
that both for shoeing and saddle-making there are tradesmen 
always at hand who can do these things better than we could ; 
or if not at hand, it is the exception and not the rule. 
I think the anecdote told at the end of the article in no way 
helps Mr. P.'s views ; and if it had not been for this anecdote, 
I believe I ought not to have troubled you. 
I cannot see how the setting on of the shoe made the practitioner 
a practitioner par excellence, “a practitioner indeed.” 
I think it would have been quite as professional, and quite as 
respectable, if the shoe had been left to the smith, and would 
have given as much satisfaction to the employer. 
The comparison of the veterinary surgeon, in this case, with 
the blacksmith, seems to be particularly unfortunate. He “ bit 
by bit examined it everywhere, the same as if he had been a 
farrier or a blacksmith himself.” 
Why, if he did not examine it better than the blacksmith, 
he did not do it so well as he ought. I never found a black- 
smith who could examine a horse’s foot as a veterinary surgeon 
can do and ought to do. 
Can you depend on the smith, however intelligent, for search- 
ing for deep-seated corns, bruised soles, small punctures of the 
sole and frog, incipient sandcrack, fissures of the bars, &c. &c. ? 
I never could. 
The veterinary surgeon must take off a shoe and pare out a 
foot as well as a blacksmith ; but he must examine a foot in a 
much more thorough and scientific w'ay than a blacksmith can 
do, or, depend upon it, however clever he may be at shoeing, 
he will soon exhibit a lamentable want of skill in discovering the 
causes of lameness in the foot. 
I know Mr. P. has but’ one object in view, viz. the advance- 
ment of our science, of which he is himself one of the greatest 
ornaments ; but I hope he will excuse me in thinking that, on 
this subject, he wishes to put “ too many irons into the fire.” 
Kettering-, July 9, 1842. 
ON THE PRESENT EPIDEMIC AMONG CATTLE. 
By Mr. John Barlow, Oak Farm , near Manchester . 
I live in a part of Cheshire where there are a considerable 
number of cows kept for the purpose of cheese-making, and the 
stock is, generally speaking, good. 
