494 
ON PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT. 
observing the ease and cleanliness with which our rnuch-respected 
Professors are enabled to go through their duty, and the few dis¬ 
agreeables they have to encounter. After an attentive pupilage of 
two or three years , he obtains his diploma without much difficulty, 
and, of course, obtains a situation as an assistant. At last, he de¬ 
termines on commencing business. He is a stranger in the place 
where he sets himself down; friends he has none, enemies many: 
the surrounding veterinary surgeons, farriers, and their friends 
would at once like to see him hooted, and kicked out of the town. 
He did not expect this; but be not astonished : I would say to 
him, such, alas, is human nature ! In the evening, at the different 
tap-rooms,he is the subj ect of conversation among a most sapient set; 
and, no matter what his merits are, the unanimous verdict is, that, 
being a “wetinary” he knows nothing. He takes his “place” on 
the “ course,” but with a “ false start;” and nothing but previous 
good training , hard and substantial food, and a firm determination 
to do the “ thing that’s right ” will bring him off victoriously. 
He is employed at first by a gentleman who takes an interest in 
his stable, who, after he has obtained much pleasure through 
the most violent exertion of his noble hunter, will visit the stable, 
and do every thing that can at all contribute to the comfort 
of his partner in the chase; and who has more feeling than to 
allow the young Vet. to be sitting behind his counter, uncon¬ 
sciously picking the ends of his fingers to the quick, while the 
farrier, by the groom’s recommendation, is busily employed in 
almost every stable. I will suppose the young veterinarian thus 
employed by some gentleman of good sense and good feeling; 
and I would beg leave to offer the following friendly advice. Let 
your conduct to your employers show that you are sensible of the 
compliment they are paying you. Say little, but what you do 
say, say with firmness; nothing tends to remove confidence so 
soon as w 7 avering opinions. Endeavour as early as possible, by 
courteous yet not too familiar conduct to the groom, to win him; 
for at first, depend upon it, he is your enemy; he has been in the 
habit, perhaps daily, of shaking hands with the farrier, and 
drinking his ale: it is not unnatural that this intimacy still exists. 
When you first visit the stable y strive with all your might to 
leave a good impression behind . This is a material thing. 
I have often thought it a melancholy fact, that a man’s reputation 
seems to hang upon a thread : if by any chance something un¬ 
toward happens in the commencement of his practice, it may 
take years before it is removed. For example, our respected 
Professor mentions a case in his Lectures, where an excellent prac¬ 
titioner had to bleed a horse. He had mislaid his blood-stick, 
