746 
ON THE NECESSITY OF INSTRUCTION IN CATTLE 
PATHOLOGY. 
By Mr. SAMUEL Brown, Melton Mowbray. 
“It is a principal point of duty to assist another most, when he stands most 
in need of assistance.” 
My dear Sir, — It appears that the dairymen in London are in 
the habit of acting upon the principle of the half-loaf being better 
than no bread. But it is a question worthy of consideration, whe- 
ther this circumstance may not be more attributed to a want of con- 
fidence in the skill of the veterinarian, than a desire on the part of 
the owners of cattle to sacrifice their property. The former of these 
positions may be regarded as approximating to the truth ; because 
those persons who keep cattle are actuated by interested yet very 
proper motives in calling in the aid of veterinarians, and are much 
more anxious to have the lives of valuable animals saved and their 
usefulness restored, than to condemn them to be slaughtered under 
disadvantageous circumstances, when labouring under a disease 
which might often be cured if skilfully treated. 
But when we consider the claims of humanity, and the wants 
and wishes of the agriculturist, and how much unnecessary pain 
might be averted and property benefited by our skill, or the one 
increased and the other ruined by our ignorance, and also that the 
amount of our employment mainly depends upon our success in 
practice, is it not of paramount importance that the veterinary 
student should receive at our national institution an education 
commensurate with his future wants as a general practitioner? 
Such being undeniably the case, are the gentlemen who constitute 
the English Agricultural Society unworthy of our co-operation? 
They exert a powerful influence, and are fully aware of the serious 
losses which the graziers sustain, and that these losses may be at- 
tributed in a very great measure, to a want of knowledge of the 
diseases of neat cattle on the part of the veterinarian ; and, there- 
fore, aided by that Society, we have now a favourable opportunity 
of making the Royal Veterinary College what it ought to be. 
Can you then, my professional brethren, even as veterinari- 
ans, much less as the fathers of sons, some of whom you may 
intend to bring up to the practice of an honourable and liberal pro- 
fession, remain passive observers at the present important crisis ? 
Will your supineness not be regarded as tantamount to a tacit ac- 
quiescence in the new arrangements at the College ? or does it not 
shew on your part an indolent indifference about that which ought 
to interest every veterinarian ? for, in my humble opinion, there 
never was a time in which unanimity of sentiment and a decided 
