79 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT EPIDEMIC 
AMONG CATTLE. 
By Mr. W. S. Wallis, V.S., Halstead. 
My dear Sir, — I CANNOT but feel flattered by your application, 
and shall be happy at any time to communicate the little informa- 
tion I may possess upon veterinary subjects or practice. With 
regard, however, to the policy of your publishing an account of the 
most approved successful treatment of this or any other disease as 
adopted by the profession, I must confess I have my scruples, for 
which you will give me credit. It may be safe and politic for some 
few individuals to make known their treatment of disease in gene- 
ral or particular, but for persons devoting themselves to laborious 
country practice, which seldom secures any thing beyond a very 
moderate income, and often a bare bread-and-cheese competency, 
to furnish their employers with an account of the remedies to 
which they resort for the relief and cure of their patients, would, 
I think, be not only injudicious and unnecessary, but highly im- 
polic and injurious. 
It is very probable that our brethren in town cannot fully appre- 
ciate the difficulties we feel, which arise from the information agri- 
culturists have derived from works already extant on veterinary 
subjects. Not that I have a word to say against those who have 
written for the public ; but, on the contrary, I think that they have 
done right, and, inasmuch as thereby they have contributed to the 
advancement of science and of the profession, they deserve and 
have my thanks, and no one, Sir, is more worthy of them than 
yourself ; but still I am of opinion that it would not be right or 
honest towards ourselves, to place the knowledge we have acquired 
by an early and expensive education and subsequent experience, 
in the hands of those on whom we depend for support, and who 
'Would naturally avail themselves of such liberality, to our exclu- 
sion. However, here I will leave the matter, assured that you 
will not do any thing thstt you deem likely in the least to infringe 
upon the interests of the profession, and hoping that you will favour 
me with your opinion respecting the above objections, and the 
course they suggest. 
Now, then, I will endeavour to answer your questions in their 
order. 
1. It has prevailed here in all situations. The neighbourhood 
is hilly, and generally considered healthy. 
2. On almost every variety of soil, pasture, and previous 
feeding. 
