AT THE VETERINARY COLLEGE 
743 
general principles and practice of medicine are similar. He has 
been taught chemistry, pharmacy, and materia medica ; and, after 
remaining at the College the requisite time, and undergoing a sa- 
tisfactory examination, he is still required to produce a certificate 
of having spent three years in the pursuit of his knowledge ! 
This is rather too much ; and I think the profession will join me 
in saying, that if it becomes a law, there will be a many who have 
studied the sister science, and who would become veterinarians, 
but who are prevented from doing so by a too rigorous and ruinous 
demand. 
If it is said that young men will be enabled to obtain their di- 
ploma with too superficial attainments, let this be remedied by a 
more rigorous examination. 
I shall feel obliged by your insertion of this in your next num- 
ber of The Veterinarian. 
THE EFFICACY OF IODINE IN THE REMOVAL OF 
ABNORMAL GROWTHS.— THE PRESENT AND FU- 
TURE STATE OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
By Mr. Thomas Holford, V.S., Northwich. 
Having been unable to accept of your kind invitation, I have 
deferred writing to you until 1 could communicate the result of 
some experiments which I have been making on the power of the 
iodine and mercurial ointments in the dispersion of morbid growths. 
The ointment on which I place most dependence is composed of 
three proportions of the iodine ointment to one of the strong mer- 
curial. 
Case I. 
The first subject was a two-year-old filly, that had two splents 
on her fore legs. She had been repeatedly blistered, but without any 
good effect. On April 20, I commenced the application of the 
compound iodine ointment, and, on the 10th of May, the splents 
had diminished to about half their original size. The time for 
grass having now arrived, the owner determined that a severe 
blister should be applied ; saying that he was assured that it would 
effect a complete cure. She was blistered, and sent about eight 
miles away to grass. 
About a month ago I saw the owner, and he told me that the 
splents remained in precisely the same state in which they were 
