ON VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
237 
no part of it more neglected than veterinary medical ethics and 
jurisprudence, I trust you will pardon my addressing to you a 
few remarks on such an important subject. 
The subject will appear of greater importance to you on reflec- 
tion. For I have only to refer you to the records of our courts of 
justice — the events that are almost daily occurring in the experi- 
ence of some of us— the conflicting opinions that exist with regard 
to almost every .point of veterinary jurisprudence, and the disjointed, 
dismembered state of this branch of veterinary science, in order 
to prove to you, much more strongly than I can express, the 
obligation that rests upon you to acquaint yourselves thoroughly 
with it. 
My friends! you, who are about to act on your own responsi- 
bility, and to mix in the throng of public and private practice — 
who have to make your way in the world — you will soon experi- 
ence the loss of that information, and the benefits of those first prin- 
ciples, which should have assisted you in coming to direct conclu- 
sions ; which should have enabled you to give decided opinions 
on differences of structure, and the capability of animals to perform 
the labours or the duties that are required from them ; and which, 
also, should qualify you to perform the most important part of your 
duty to your employers — the preventing of them from running into 
unnecessary and expensive litigations. You will then feel the 
cogent and eloquent language of one for whose labours we ought 
all to feel thankful, and who on one branch of this subject, at least, 
has left on record a clear argumentative statement of an opinion 
which alone would prove him, if proof were wanted, one of the 
greatest benefactors of our art, and convince you that it is neces- 
sary, for your own credit’s sake, that a greater portion of your time 
should be devoted to inquiries connected with veterinary j uris- 
prudence. “ It therefore behoves the veterinarian to arm himself 
at all points ; and not only for his own individual reputation, but 
for the respectability of the profession altogether : for what scene 
can be more derogatory — what more disgraceful — than one where 
two respectable members of the same profession are seen evi- 
dencing — ay, and swearing too — in direct contradiction the one to 
the other 1 What (he goes on to ask) can this arise from, but a 
want of some mutual understanding and explanation 1 What can 
remedy it, but the cultivation of a branch of knowledge which has 
been, greatly to our own discredit, almost totally neglected, viz. 
veterinary jurisprudence 1” 
Ten years have nearly elapsed since this paragraph was written; 
and is the stain yet wiped away 1 or rather is it not more deeply 
and indelibly fixed 1 Do the events of the last few years teach 
no useful lesson, and administer no just reproof] Look at the 
VOL. XII. I i 
