578 
PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE 
rinary art in all its branches. It will be a hard battle, both for 
the agriculturist and the surgeon, to get rid of the pretensions 
of the charlatan, and the ignorance and superstition of the 
proprietor; but, to a very great extent, the cause of truth and 
science will at no great distance of time prevail. It is prevail- 
ing; for the veterinary surgeon is far oftener consulted, respect- 
ing the diseases of cattle and sheep, than he used to be, and 
that mutual good understanding and confidence are rapidly 
establishing which cannot fail of producing the happiest re- 
sults.— Y.] 
The almost daily complaints (says M. Lacoste) which are 
made by veterinary surgeons of the practice of medicine on ani- 
mals being usurped by a crowd of empirics — the essential injury 
which they every day do to the proprietors of cattle, and the 
serious consequences that would result if an epizootic should pre- 
vail through the country, should induce the government, in some 
material degree, to interfere. 
Having practised veterinary medicine during some years in 
the department of Hautes Pyrenees, I have had opportunity to 
see the superstitious ignorance which prevails among the pro- 
prietors of cattle, and the pretended medical attendants on 
these animals. In truth, the medical treatment of cattle is 
that which it was in the times of Solleysel and Garsault, if it 
has not even retrograded. A veterinary surgeon, established in 
the little town of Trie, was the first who, in that part of the coun- 
try, adopted a rational course of medical treatment, instead of the 
recipes to which the smiths had recourse, and the charms and 
exorcisms which certain pretended wise men or sorcerers had 
established in that town and its environs. The sedentary empi- 
rics, embracing every farrier and smith in these rural communes, 
did not contribute a little by their impudence — always propor- 
tioned to their ignorance — to augment the blind confidence of the 
inhabitants with whom they were brought into daily contact. 
This frequent communication induced the proprietors to prefer 
the recipes of these people to the scientific treatment of those 
from whom alone their animals could derive benefit. The vete- 
rinary surgeon who was bold enough to enter his protest against 
these errors gained no confidence, whatever was his merit ; or, at 
least, if he wished to obtain employers, he was compelled to bor- 
row, and to pretend to use their recipes. The proprietor was as 
ignorant and superstitious as the empiric. In a great proportion 
of cases it was his office to prescribe the remedy, and that of the 
empiric or surgeon to administer it ; and then the little confidence 
in the surgeon soon passed away, for it was not so docile as the 
empiric. 
Some proprietors would, for a little while, submit to the judg- 
