572 
COR R KSPON DENCE WITH 
likely himself to work a cure. Should the horse be a valuable 
one, and should his owner, by dire experience, conceive in his 
own mind that by his own treatment he shall injure or destroy 
him, the veterinary practitioner is likely to be sent for ; otherwise, 
and particularly when the question hinges upon poor humanity, 
I am afraid the purse is likely to get the better of the doctor. 
The ostensible object with which a professional journal is ori- 
ginated, and on account of which it solicits support, is, that it 
may serve as a medium of communication between the members 
of the profession to which it belongs, and that in it they maj, 
monthly or weekly, hold a sort of correspondence, by letter or 
otherwise, by which all may benefit, though only such as are 
able, or have inclination or time, contribute to it. So long as 
the circulation or sale of the journal is confined to the members 
of the profession, there assuredly ought to be the most unreserved 
communication : for one man to withhold his opinions and recipes 
while he is benefitting by those of his fellow-practitioners, is il- 
liberal and ungentlemanlike in the extreme; indeed, it is con- 
duct for which he deserves to be scouted by his professional 
brethren. But the editor of the journal perceives that the issue 
of his periodical is augmenting — that the number sold is greater in 
amount than the professional subscribers — that, in fact, the peri- 
odical is circulating among the laity as well as the professionals. 
And, now, how goes the question about “ unreserved communica- 
tion?” Are we to put every groom, horse-dealer, farmer, and 
grazier, in possession of our recipes, that they may, with these 
very weapons, combat us, and do us injury ? Are we to tell them 
that so much cantharides, &c. constitute our blister; and that 
our purging, and urine, and fever-balls are composed of so and so? 
And yet, if we are, in our relations of cases, and dissertations on 
pathological subjects, to omit every thing concerning treatment, 
how much shall we strip these accounts of their value ! What, 
then, is to be done ? 
Between suppression on the one side, and divulgement on the 
other — between this Scylla and Charybdis — I should say 
“ In medio tutissimus ibis.” 
I should counsel the contributors to The Veterinarian to 
give their pathological papers, and their narrations of cases, every 
attention in respect to history, causes, symptoms, post-mortem 
appearances, &c. ; and when they come to the subject of treat- 
ment , merely to mention that “ the treatment was such as is usual 
in such cases or that it consisted in cathartics, diuretics, an- 
thelmintics, febrifuges, vesicatories, discuent or evaporating 
lotions, &c.;” or should it be required to specify any particular 
