IMPERFECTION OF VETERINARY NOSOLOGY. 
80 
obtained, will throw a new, yet clear and distinct, light upon our 
pathological inquiries, by enabling us with greater precision to 
note the various stages of disease, and to apply our remedies 
accordingly. This is the only benefit accruing from it, for the. 
future publications of the scientific veterinarian will then car¬ 
ry upon the very face of them the stamp of honest merit, and 
be a distinguishing mark from those of the ignorant pretender, 
which are the bane and disgrace of the stable, the animal’s too 
frequently irreparable injury, and consequent loss to the owner, 
and, what is still worse, a great bar to the advancement of true 
science. By its means (when we shall no longer hear of a horse’s 
“ grease being melted,” with a thousand other absurdities which 
I blush to name, but still more to recognize) I should also, in 
a short time, hope to find science asserting its own proper place 
and sway, and the unmeaning vocabulary of stable-men driven 
from their present impregnable fortresses, and deprived of their 
long accustomed residence, which would be a reform highly 
praiseworthy to the individual who attempts it, and a consum¬ 
mation truly desirable. I feel conscious, Messrs. Editors, that 
to accomplish this task will be a work of no small difficulty, set¬ 
ting aside all old prejudices; for as new diseases, hitherto unno¬ 
ticed, or merely regarded under the common heads of the very 
convenient terms colds, or fever, must of necessity follow, so, of 
course, will our pathological studies be directed and stimulated 
to greater exertions, and veterinary science ultimately benefitted ; 
in proof of which, how many cases have we all seen where the 
disorder has not at the onset, and oft times never during the 
whole of its progress, exhibited itself (according to our present 
imperfect if not improper classification of diseases) in any speci¬ 
fic form under these circumstances ! Although not a new disease, 
yet still deprived of a name, it passes unregardedly if not thought¬ 
lessly by, under the familiar appellation of cold, or fever, to the 
disgrace of the veterinary surgeon and the science he professes. 
It would be an easy matter for me to enumerate numberless facts 
in corroboration of what I have advanced ; but fearing to trespass 
upon your kindness and the pages of The Veterinarian, 
which, in the opinion of many of your readers, might be devoted 
to matter more interesting if not of greater moment, I shall 
therefore content myself by asking, Do we not repeatedly, in prac¬ 
tice, meet with cases where the parotid glands are alone the seat 
of inflammation, corresponding almost in every tittle to the cy- 
nanche parotidsea in the human subject ? and this being the case, 
as it undoubtedly and undeniably is, would it not sound better 
from the mouth of the veterinary surgeon, than the absurd one of 
the vives, or bastard strangles ? This alone, cum multus aliis, 
