558 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH 
serious cases, the symptoms which, in my opinion, proved the ex- 
istence of that disease; and always, when asked, without hesita- 
tion I have told what medicine 1 should give — not the quanti- 
ties — and have never yet wished that I had done otherwise. I 
have, in consequence, in a few instances, from disapprobation 
expressed of my plan, refused to undertake the treatment of the 
patient, and, as far as I ever knew, with advantage to myself. 
Would a veterinary surgeon possessed of mental and acquired 
ability in his profession, allow a sick or lame horse of his own to 
be treated for the ailment, whether sickness or lameness, or what- 
ever may be amiss, by any person indebted for all his medical 
knowledge to books, and whatever he may add to it by occa- 
sionally seeing a sick or lame animal, or even to a surgeon or a 
physician! To suppose that he would, is to disgrace us as a 
body ; and if we stand on no better ground, we ought not to be 
respected or employed : but 1 know that it is otherwise. 
In our profession, as in others, there are those who creep in by 
the back door, and such have reason to fear lest the public 
should esteem them according to their desert. There may be 
some of better standing who may be unnecessarily alarmed ; but 
a man of moderate ability in his profession will, by diligence and 
observation, be always superior to the empiric. 
If a man, carrying a book in his pocket — no matter by whom 
written — can enter a stable, 8cc., look at the animal, ascertain 
what is amiss, and treat it as well as another who is educated 
and in constant practice, let him do so, for he must be (if not a 
witch) a wonder in the world ; but if he is not this wonderful per- 
sonage, the public will find out the point at which he ought to 
be rated, and the result as to his injuring the scientific practi- 
tioner may be easily predicated. 
Would you or any other sensible veterinary surgeon in town 
or country undertake the treatment of sickness or lameness of a 
serious character in the horse or other animal, and hold himself 
responsible in blame or money on the representation of a very 
diligent reader of the authors before recited ? — nay, would he not 
hesitate to prescribe on the report of a veterinary surgeon, if a 
stranger to him 1 Would he not proceed with caution, and ques- 
tion the reporter, not whether the case was one of pneumonia, or 
pleurisy, or enteritis, or gastro-enteritis, but what symptoms of 
disease were apparent, and by those symptoms determine not 
only the particular disease, but the intensity of disease ? Refuse 
the statement of symptoms, and he would refuse to prescribe. In 
my opinion, the man who practises on report is no better than a 
quack. 
If every attack of disease could be distinguished by a name. 
