624 
REMARKS ON VARIOUS CONTRIBUTIONS 
rived from Iris scientific lectures : open another, and we find Mr. 
Charles Clark, a London practitioner, plainly insinuating that on 
two most material points — namely, the foot and its shoe, and in- 
flammation of the lungs — his doctrine is pernicious. On the first- 
named point, indeed, he says “ his peculiar views stand foremost 
in erroneous magnitude,” and that his theory on the treatment of 
inflamed lungs “ has been practised with fatal loss by many a 
young veterinary surgeon.” Touching this gentleman’s insinua- 
tion at the transmutation of Mr. Coleman from a limited practice, 
in Palsgrave Court, to the office of Professor of the Veterinary Art, 
I am unable to do more than suppose, that he must have had some 
pretensions to the honour of being placed at the head of the School, 
or that honour would not have been conferred upon him ; and, perhaps, 
a more experienced person than himself, possessed of other requisite 
qualifications, could not have been found at that period. His 
charge against him of the want of experience could not, perhaps, 
be denied, and, to enable a man to instruct others, experience, we 
must admit, is a most essential accomplishment. I can give you 
a tolerable anecdote on this subject, told of one very great man in 
the medical line, during his noviciate — no less than Sir Hans 
Sloane, who succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as President of the Royal 
Society, and who was the founder of the British Museum. On his 
arrival in London, he w r aited on Dr. Sydenham, with a letter of 
recommendation, setting forth his qualifications — “a ripe scholar, a 
good botanist, a skilful anatomist.” “ All mighty fine,” said Syden- 
ham ; “ but it won’t do. Scholarship — botany — anatomy — non- 
sense / Go to the bed-side, Sir ; it is there you can learn disease.” 
But how happened it, that, when experience had been added to Mr. 
Coleman’s other qualifications, he so long persisted in his erro- 
neous views of the horse’s foot, for erroneous they are as to the 
thin-heeled shoe, and the frog on the ground ] Experience has 
proved that these views were generally erroneous ; and no man 
who regards the welfare of his horses, or his own safety, now 
generally adopts them. Then there is dissent again in the pro- 
fession, on the subject of the foot’s expansion. It is asserted that 
Mr. Bracy Clark’s seven years’ experiment on the foot of a blood 
mare is conclusive as to the fact that the foot does not expand and 
dilate when in action. Your President (see page 121, April 1839) 
believes such to be the case, whereas Mr. Charles denies it; and 
Mr. Wallis, who is surprised at the denial of Mr. Charles, admits 
that, “ after all, it is not very great.” Now I, in my ignorance, 
am among the unbelievers here ; I am convinced that there is an 
expansion of the foot, by the mere growth of the organ, under a 
proper direction ; but, without further proof, I cannot admit an elas- 
tic expansion or dilatation of the foot in action. To the expan- 
