568 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE—EMPIRICISM. 
tional tribunal of the police, only so far as these facts constitute 
a crime; and it is yet to be determined whether they do con¬ 
stitute a crime, and what is the nature of that crime; and that 
these questions, omission being made of that which belongs to 
the veterinary art, are the only ones to be examined ; 
“ Whereas there is no law that forbids the practice of the 
veterinary ait without a diploma—that the law of the 19th 
Ventose, ann. xi, applies only to the practice of medicine—that 
if no law prohibits the practice of the veterinary art without a 
diploma, the law of the 21st Germinal, ann. xi, cannot be applied 
to him who pays for a medicine which he has bought of an 
apothecary, and which he has employed in the medical treatment 
of animals ; 
“ Whereas it w-as notorious that Lantier was not legally recog¬ 
nized as a veterinary practitioner, and consequently did not as¬ 
sume a false character that in recommending to Sebille certain 
medicines for the cure of his animals, he recommended those 
that he had often before employed with success-that the repu¬ 
tation, well or ill-established, that Lantier possessed, was founded 
on the success which had attended him-that if he has obtained 
success from the means w 7 hich he recommended to Sebille, his 
prescriptions cannot be designated as fraudulent manoeuvres to 
deceive the unwary-that, consequently, there is nothing in 
these facts that can be comprised under the term swindling- 
that the death of the three horses of Sebille may be caused by 
unskilful treatment, but that in such case Sebille would have to 
charge himself with having misplaced his confidence ; 
“The tribunal acquits Lantier of the charge, and condemns 
Sebille in the costs, reserving to Sebille the right, if he chooses 
to exercise it, of proceeding against Lantier by the civil law, for 
damages on account of losses he has experienced/ 7 
The narrator thus apostrophises the cure, the neighbouring 
inhabitants, and his veterinary brethren :—“ Fortunate cure ! 
twice brought before the bar of justice, and twice acquitted, and 
triumphant! like Briareus with his hundred arms, who gained 
new vigour as often as he touched his mother earth, and deriving 
strength from the judgment of the tribunal of Provins, go purge 
and drench, and kill every living animal more impudently than 
before ! I congratulate thee that thou didst not live in the 17th 
century: for if thou hadst exercised thy talents in 1691, thou 
wouldst have experienced the fate of the shepherds of Brie: 
they were foolish enough to believe that they possessed some 
magical skill in the treatment of quadruped disease, and they 
were unlucky enough to kill their patients, and they were con¬ 
demned, cure of the great parish, to be hanged and burned. 
