462 
ON PROFESSIONAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
try and talents, lawfully employed, has raised himself to a superior 
and respectable station. It is the ignorant man, and the mere 
pretender, I speak against : he who assumes to the possession of 
that which he has not, and who with a little knowledge becomes 
puffed up with self-conceit, and then adds to this the blackest of 
all crimes, — ingratitude to his employer. 
I confess I was somewhat amused with the remark of one friend, 
who told me that, although his smith compounded his medicines — 
shame on it that this should be thought an employment worthy 
only of such men! — he never gave them to his patients, this being 
done by his groom; and so they were prevented from becom- 
ing conversant with the treatment of disease! “What!” said I; 
“ and cannot these your servants confer together in the evening; and 
think you that they do not, and make pretty free strictures, too, on 
your plan of treatment, and the amount of your knowledge V ’ 
And what is the result of this I conceit engenders folly, and, 
knowing little, they think they know much, and on the first and 
most trifling event which takes place at which they are displeased, 
perhaps on your pointing out to them a neglected duty, they quit 
your service, and commence the practice of a profession which 
demands the application of some of the noblest powers of the mind. 
This they are altogether ignorant of, and, conceiving it to be a 
merely mechanical art, and actuated only by a love of gain, they 
have recourse to the lowest means in order to accomplish their 
purpose ; thus disgracing themselves and the profession whose name 
they have assumed. 
What is the remedy for this growing evil ! it is as simple as it 
is plain. Let veterinary surgeons take youths of education and 
respectability as apprentices for a limited period — certainly not 
less than three years, — and by inculcating right principles, the object 
will be at once gained. Let not the fear of opposition prevail. 
Competition, to a greater or less degree, must exist, and that which 
is honourable has nothing in it to cause dread or apprehension ; 
while that which is dishonourable, although in the end it may meet 
with its reward, yet during its existence fails not to create un- 
pleasant feelings, to say the least. 
An instructor and his pupil are bound by ties very different from 
those which unite a master to his servant, although between these 
there is a reciprocal duty which the rightly instructed will never 
lose sight of ; yet, I repeat, that the instructor and his pupil are 
bound by ties of a stronger and more lasting character. As years 
pass on mutual confidence is engendered, which never should be 
violated ; and a friendship springs up which should never be 
broken, and which never will, if the conduct of both be what it 
ought. 
