THE EDITOR. 
487 
and kindly feeling which existed between him and the medical 
man. And how came this union, so honourable and so advanta- 
geous to both, to be shaken to its very foundation ? Soon after 
the establishment of the English Agricultural Society, a fearful 
epidemic broke out among the cattle in every part of the king- 
dom. In many cases it was destructive to life ; in more it was 
injurious to condition, and the Governors of the Society were 
naturally anxious to arrest its course. How did they attempt to 
accomplish this? Not by convening a meeting of a few of the 
best practitioners in cattle medicine, who might ascertain the real 
character, and causes, and management of the disease, and send 
to their brethren in the various parts of the kingdom a sketch of 
the result of their inquiries, and their opinion of the course that 
should be adopted ; but they go to the Veterinary College, the 
Professor of which, from the previous absurd and injurious plan 
on which that establishment had been conducted, had never seen 
a dozen cases of cattle disease in his life, and they induce him to 
draw up, almost at hap-hazard, a sketch of the treatment which 
should be adopted ; and this is despatched, not to the veterinary 
surgeons in different parts of the country, to adapt to the chang- 
ing circumstances which each locality would present, but to every 
member of the Agricultural Society — to every man who had sub- 
scribed his pound. And what was the consequence of this? 
In a great proportion of cases, the veterinary surgeon was no 
longer consulted. A kind of disseverment took place between him 
and his old employers, which for many a year will leave its inju- 
rious effects. The farmer, the bailiff, and the gentleman, began to 
doctor for themselves. In milder cases, the animals got well — 
in others — and they were not a few — these persons confounded 
themselves with regard to the indications of bleeding, and purg- 
ing, and feeding, and many an animal was lost who ought not 
for a moment to have been endangered. The natural course of 
things took place with regard to cattle which would have been 
the result of the treatment of influenza in children, if directions 
for the treatment of them had been distributed not among medical 
men, but among ignorant cottagers in-some unhealthy season. 
The diminution of the employment of the veterinary surgeon 
being in many cases almost destructive to his professional career, 
