GRIEVANCES OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 301 
| of study, and it only needed a sprinkling of practitioners to make 
the board complete ; but whether this additional body was to be 
separated from, or connected with, the old one, I should have 
cared but little. But supposing the board was to be altered, 
and the examinations rendered more difficult, what would be the 
result 7 —but that a greater number than at present would go to 
the College for a few months, and then set themselves down in 
some town or district, and style themselves Veterinary Surgeons. 
This is the main evil that at present exists, and it is something 
to counteract the peculiar advantages these illiterate men pos¬ 
sess, that it should be our object to obtain, A farrier will 
often outlive a veterinary surgeon in any particular place, be¬ 
cause the latter, unless after a time he can obtain a sufficient 
income to support his respectability, will leave it for some more 
favoured spot; whilst the former can eke out his existence on 
a pittance, just as animals that are lowest in the scale of crea¬ 
tion have the fewest wants and are the most tenacious of life; 
and this enables him effectually to compete in price with his pro¬ 
fessional opponent. Of all the obstacles opposed to the veteri¬ 
nary surgeon’s progress, ignorance is the greatest, and the most 
difficult to surmount: like the hundred-headed monster of anti¬ 
quity, as fast as one head is destroyed another springs up in its 
place. The less people know of horses and their diseases, the 
less they think there is to acquire; and many seem to imagine, 
that because a men has been accustomed to curry the horse’s 
hide, he must therefore be sufficiently acquainted with his inter¬ 
nal structure, and competent to treat his maladies. They have an 
idea that theory and practice are incompatible ; that, in propor¬ 
tion as a man’s scientific acquirements are great, his practical 
knowledge must in the same proportion be deficient; and yet 
they are very ready to take advantage of the V.S., if they fancy 
that he makes the slightest error. I was conversing a short time 
since with a gentleman (a retired army captain) on this subject, 
and I well remember his remarks: he said, “ I have often 
been surprised at the unreasonable expectations people have 
from members of your profession: they really expect you to 
overrule Providence, and to circumvent nature, and are dis¬ 
satisfied if you cannot do it; whilst the ignorant farrier is 
seldom blamed, whatever he does; he has a ready excuse to 
make for all his bungles, and if he cannot find out where a horse 
is lame, he will swear boldly that it is in the shoulders.” Sonie 
little time since I was requested to look at a horse that hatl 
been lame and useless for upwards of a twelvemonth : I found 
the bones of the foot quite carious, so much so, that I could pass 
a probe through the foot from the coronet to the heels: of 
vol. vn. Hr 
