426 
THE VETERINARY" PROFESSION. 
occurred around them without regret and pain. May the next 
session be more propitious to the veterinary art. 
To one subject our attention is unexpectedly called — the warn- 
ing of a kind and judicious friend, and to whom we return our 
most cordial thanks. 
There have been for many years past a certain number of prac- 
titioners averse to the diffusion of veterinary knowledge beyond 
the circle of the profession. The periodicals have long been 
viewed by them with dislike and distrust. They are supposed 
to have been the means by which many points of useful know- 
ledge were brought within the reach of the cowleech or the far- 
rier, or, occasionally, the owner of the patient. 
A circumstance, however, occurred in May 1840, of the most 
outrageous character. The English Agricultural Society, anxious 
to stem the progress of the epidemic that prevailed among 
cattle and sheep, requested Professor Sewell to draw up a state- 
ment of the nature, and causes, and symptoms, and treatment 
of the disease, to be sent, not to veterinary practitioners, but 
to every farmer who was a member of the society ; and he was 
instructed to purge and to bleed, and to do, probably, all 
manner of mischief, and then, when the animal was sinking, and 
the case was hopeless, he was advised to have recourse to the ve- 
terinary surgeon. 
The Editor does not wonder at the language which was used in 
his friend’s letter, — that “ the practitioners viewed with alarm and 
indignation the public circulation of Professor Sewell’s papers,” 
for no similar document ever proceeded from the veterinary school, 
nor do the records of human medicine contain any thing similar 
to it. The Editor does not wonder at the eagerness with which 
it was copied into almost every journal in the kingdom. Sent by 
a body of men like those who composed the Agricultural Society 
to every subscriber to their institution, it did incalculable, 
although we hope temporary, mischief to the veterinary profes- 
sion. It likewise did — as ail this quackery must do in the long 
run — incalculable mischief to the farmer. Hundreds of cattle 
were destroyed that would otherwise have escaped, and months 
were spent in the recovery of that condition which needed 
not to have been impaired. It was, we repeat, the strangest 
