THE EDITOR. 
479 
make our good deeds known to the world, it surely cannot be 
advancing the cause, by declaring that the principal fountain from 
which we should derive our knowledge is nothing but a muddy 
pool ; and if such statements have any influence with the public 
at all, it must be to lessen their confidence in a class of men who 
declare the system of their education to be so defective. 
It is not, however, my intention to enter into any discussion 
relative to the abuses or non-abuses of the Veterinary College, 
and I should not have troubled you with this letter, but for the 
following paragraph, contained in the leader of the last number: 
“There have been for many years past a certain number of practi- 
tioners averse to the diffusion of veterinary knowledge ; the 
periodicals have long been viewed by them with dislike and 
distrust. They are supposed to have been the means by which 
many points of useful knowledge were brought within the reach 
of the cowleech or the farrier, or occasionally the owner of the 
patient.” 
That such a feeling does in some measure exist in this district, 
I am sorry to be obliged to admit; for not many months ago an 
old friend and veterinary surgeon did me the honour to request 
my opinion on the subject ; and said that other veterinary surgeons, 
with whom he had had conversation respecting it, were of opinion 
that the general diffusion of veterinary knowledge, through the 
means of The Veterinarian and other publications, had 
worked injuriously for the interests of the profession. » 
My reply then was, and I now repeat it, — that it wQuld be an 
everlasting disgrace to us to withdraw our support from The 
Veterinarian on such a plea. If the exclusive system was to 
be strictly adopted, and works on every science only to be 
circulated amongst those who have a pecuniary interest in them, 
I am afraid the onward march of intelligence would very soon be 
changed for the backward march of ignorance. The surgeon, at 
all events, has quite as great a cause of complaint as the veteri- 
nary surgeon; for notwithstanding his charter, there are quite as 
many quacks in human as in horse medicine ; yet I am well 
satisfied that if it was proposed., upon such ground, to suppress or 
restrict the medical periodical press, the proposition would be 
treated by the members of that profession as perfectly absurd. 
To confine the circulation of a printed book to any particular 
class of persons is next to impossible, to say nothing of the un- 
seemliness of so doing ; for any one who chose to be at the ex- 
pense, may and would obtain a copy, and the question becomes, 
whether a periodical publication from which the veterinary pro- 
fession has, during the last ten years, derived incalculable advan- 
tages, and which has done more than any thing else to uphold and 
