248 
ON PROFESSOR COLEMAN'S 
tify his claim to public favuor. How unfortunate is the position 
of that man who is called upon to express a decided opinion on a sub- 
ject with which he is unacquainted, or, speaking shortly, is com- 
pelled to lecture on horse affairs, having no knowledge of them ; 
if cautious and candid, he will betray his ignorance; but if imagi- 
native and plausible, he will at once adopt some specious theo- 
retical ground, trusting to his own ingenuity and the inexperience 
and confidence of his auditors. 
This latter plan is rendered especially easy, when, as in this 
case, the subject is but little understood, and the teacher stands 
alone, without a single rival lecturer to contravene what he may 
choose to assert, and when, moreover, the pupils are so far depend- 
ant upon his personal approbation as to be deterred from putting 
forward a contrary opinion, or even questioning the correctness of 
what they hear. Accordingly, we very soon find Mr. C. forgetting 
his humble declaration on entering the College, and, without allow- 
ing himself time to learn much from practice, he at once began to 
adopt and promulgate a set of theories and new doctrines, the chief 
of which he has blindly persisted in for near half a century, un- 
checked by their general failure in the hands of his pupils, and 
equally regardless of the voice of a large majority of reasonable 
horsemen and the refutations they received from his contemporaries. 
But, after thirty years passed with little alteration in the doctrines 
he had disseminated, the powerful instrumentality of a periodical 
press was awakened, and its sharp strictures have now, at length, 
effected some improvement, both as regards the opinions taught 
at this institution and its general management as a veterinary 
school. I propose to leave out of sight every consideration bearing 
on the political conduct and character of Mr. Coleman’s establish- 
ment towards the pupils and the public (although these are subjects 
requiring the strictest inquiry), and to confine myself chiefly to the 
description of those leading dogmas, -whether written or oral, which 
have emanated from the chair during his long occupation it. The 
Professor’s peculiar views on the subject of the foot and shoeing 
stand foremost in erroneous magnitude ; but as the preface has made 
this paper already long, I shall now only notice his theory respect- 
ing the treatment of “ inflammation of the lungs,” namely, the ex- 
posure-to-cold system, as it has been exhibited in the comfortless 
sheds of the College, and practised -with fatal loss by many a young 
veterinary surgeon in the outset of his career. 
The axiom upon which he founds this chilling theory is as fol- 
lows : — “ that catarrh, and also inflammation of the lungs, is not so 
often a consequence of changes from heat to cold as from cold to 
heat ergo, a very low temperature, amounting to an exposure to 
cold air, is the best atmosphere in such cases. The assumption 
