THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
423 
dry. They begin to lose their condition — they waste away, and 
many of them die of evident affection of the liver — there are no 
JiukeSj but the liver is nearly wasted away. 
The bailiff, by the order of his master, writes to Professor 
Sewell on the subject, who does, not profess to understand the 
nature of the disease any farther than that “it probably originates 
in inflammation of the liver.”- — There needed no ghost to tell us 
that — “and that the variable temperature which had prevailed, 
(Qy.) and probably some peculiar state of the situation, might 
favour a tendency to the disease. A change of place and aspect, 
and food to a certain extent, should be tried in the first instance, 
at least in those that appeared to be affected.” Presently, how- 
ever, comes a night of rain, and the mortality among the sheep 
ceases at once , and the bailiff does not find it necessary to separate 
any fresh case from the flock. 
Little or nothing needs to be added to the above account. Jt 
speaks sufficiently for itself. That and a few other cases, in 
which the disease was completely misunderstood, induced the 
first sheep-breeder in our country to write to the Editor of this 
periodical, that, “ in his opinion, there was very little indeed of the 
diseases of sheep known at the St. Pancras School.” How, in 
point of fact, and without any disrespect to Mr. Sewell person- 
ally, can it be otherwise ? What opportunity has that gentleman 
possessed of acquainting himself with the diseases of sheep and 
cattle? How can a man learn without having been instructed? 
How can he practise without having been taught? In point of 
fact, how comparatively few — not many more than a dozen — of 
these animals have found their way to the St. Pancras Infirmary 
during the five-and-thirty years that he has been there; and how 
few and far between have been the opportunities of his becoming 
acquainted with the real nature, and cause, and treatment of 
their diseases ! 
Is Mr. Sewell flattering himself that he is acquiring useful 
knowledge on these points. He, as well as the writer of the 
present leader, is arrived at a period when he is far more likely 
to yield to the infirmities of age than promptly to accumulate, 
and decidedly to carry into practice, new principles and views. 
There are half a dozen practitioners, or more, in various parts 
