4GG 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH 
cost, obtained the opinion and experience of, we will say, half 
a dozen veterinary surgeons most experienced in cattle patho- 
logy — if they had divided the knowledge thus obtained into two 
branches — one containing the nature, early symptoms, and gene- 
ral treatment of the disease, with the advice to place their cattle 
under the care of a neighbouring veterinary surgeon of education 
and character — and the other the best medical treatment to be 
adopted in the various stages of the disease — if they had done 
this, they would have conferred a benefit on our profession, in 
return for which we should gladly have become members of their 
Association. They would have greatly accelerated the knowledge 
of cattle diseases, and saved the lives, and quickly restored to 
health, thousands of cattle, and thereby essentially benefitted 
the pockets of their members, promoted the objects for which 
they were formed, and raised themselves in public estimation. 
As it is, however, the error has been committed. I hope that 
it will be the last, and that it will be atoned for by correspond- 
ing benefits. 
The Veterinarian, from the hour of its birth to the pre- 
sent time, has never exposed itself to charges such as these. 
That its conduct has always been free from blame I do not for a 
moment imagine — many a time I would gladly have erased a 
portion of its contents. To expect otherwise, however, is to 
anticipate too much from frail humanity. 
If, however, its conduct has not always been free from censure, 
it has achieved a vast amount of good — it has collected together 
a mass of sound scientific knowledge, and disseminated it through 
the profession at large — it has collected into one focus an infinite 
number of scattered rays, that, dispersed among their native 
localities, would have shed a feeble light and then disappeared ; 
but collected by our periodical, and brought to bear on our pro- 
fession at large, have enriched the magazine of our professional 
knowledge, benefitted the interest of its scientific members, and 
given to our art an onward progress that years of wandering 
and isolated study never would have effected. 
If in achieving these advantages a portion of its information 
should have got into other than proper channels, and have done 
some partial evil, I believe the injury so inflicted has been slight 
indeed. I am free to acknowledge that it is injurious to publish 
specifics for any disease unless clothed in scientific terms ; but 
the evil thus pointed out can be readily avoided. I have, however, 
been often disgusted on reading the newspapers, particularly in the 
Mark Lane Express , letters from Correspondents requiring to be 
informed of the best remedy for particular diseases. Some time 
since I was struck with a moderate request in the above Journal 
