623 
REMARKS ON VARIOUS CONTRIBUTIONS TO “ THE 
VETERINARIAN,” AND HISTORY OF 
VARIOUS STUDS. 
By Nimrod. 
Dear Sir, — I ALWAYS sit down to this task con amore, because 
the subject matter is congenial with my own taste. But, previously 
to entering on that announced in my last — the result of my obser- 
vations on the studs which I saw during my late tour — allow me 
to offer a word or two on the present position of veterinary science, 
and on those who practise it. As relates to the former, its best 
friends cannot desire a more prosperous course than the one now 
pursued by it, so much strengthened by the fact of its being about 
to be generally directed to the diseases of cattle, sheep, &c., as 
well as horses, and which fact was eloquently and forcibly an- 
nounced by Mr. Spooner, in his oration before the Veterinary Medi- 
cal Association in November last. It is lamentable to think that 
the diseases of cattle and sheep have so long been subjected to the 
ignorant treatment of the country cow-doctor, and of which igno- 
rance alone is not the greatest evil. Unnecessary suffering is 
added to disease, which will no longer be the case under veterinary 
skill. I sincerely congratulate the country on this announcement 
of Mr. Spooner, and trust the barbarous titles of farrier and cow- 
leach will soon be amongst those which lexicographers define 
“ not in use*.” As regards the present practitioners of the 
veterinary art, no doubt can be entertained of their having exceeded 
the expectation of the public in the progress they have made both 
in science and in practice, and that it will no longer be remark- 
able, as Pennant says, that whilst England surpasses all European 
countries in the excellence of its horses, its veterinary schools still 
remain in their infant state. Amongst the practitioners them- 
selves, however, I should like to see a little more decided unani- 
mity of thought and opinion on certain momentous points. For ex- 
ample, — open one volume of The VETERINARIAN, and we find Pro- 
fessor Coleman extolled for the superior instruction to be de- 
* During the last ten years of my residence in England, my stock of horned 
cattle amounted to between twenty-five and thirty head. Disease, of course, 
would occasionally attack them, and their doctor, when sick, was an old la- 
bouring man nearly in his dotage, who could neither read nor write. Some 
of his recipes were truly ridiculous, and yet, strange to say, they oftener hit 
than missed the mark. His criterion of convalescence was, the state of the 
nose. How is the cow? he would say: does she siveat at nose f If an- 
swered in the affirmative, he always exclaimed — u Never heed her now ; she'll 
do and she generally did “ do.” 
