36 
THE LATE MR. JOHN FIELD. 
father in the largest veterinary practice ever known in this, or, pro¬ 
bably, any other country; a practice which to the day of his death 
he was conducting with ability, industry, and a suavity and mildness 
of manner, such as is not every day seen, even in human practice, 
and rarely indeed in veterinary. In every and the truest sense of 
the word, John Field was a gentleman. He possessed a classical edu¬ 
cation, a good general knowledge, a deep and refined one on medi¬ 
cal subjects. His urbanity and unassuming deportment were known 
to every body; he was a man of the highest sense of honour and 
integrity; and withal, of great charity: better than all, he lived 
a good life; and, best of all, he died a good death. He met the grim 
tyrant in the character of a good man, though fearfully, yet firmly: 
he knew' his sad visiter, and asked but a little while to prepare to 
follow him. He lost no time in summoning around his bed his 
nearest and dearest relations; and, having settled his worldly 
affairs, he betook himself to his spiritual adviser, and with him 
spent the few remaining hours he felt he had to spend in this lower 
world. Oh ! that all of us could meet death like this good man. 
What heaven-directed consolatory feelings such a man must have 
left behind him wdthin the breasts of his friends and relations ! 
What a pattern for them to live and die by! 
In professional life John Field was a man far from putting 
himself forward : his nature was modest and unobtrusive, except 
on any occasion w'hen duty called on him; and then was he to be 
seen in the foremost ranks, and often shining there with a bril¬ 
liancy of character which those only who intimately knew him 
would have expected. As an orator, on several occasions, that he 
has evinced a polished ‘‘ phrase of speech” as well as a highly cul¬ 
tivated knowledge of his profession, may be collected from his 
speeches reported in The VETERINARIAN ; and though as a writer 
he has left but little behind him—no book or work—still there 
is reason to believe that, had he lived, he would one day have 
given the fruits of his extensive practice and great experience to 
the profession, and thereby made large and valuable additions to 
our present stock of veterinary knowledge. We say thus much, 
not from any certain information we possess, but from so frequent¬ 
ly having enjoyed conversations with him, in which he has given 
accounts of cases so in detail, and of such various dates, that we 
were necessarily led to the belief that he must have kept some 
records of them. That he had in his possession several highly 
valuable coloured drawings of morbid structures, every profes¬ 
sional friend in the habit of visiting him weW knew, from the plea¬ 
sure he ever took of displaying them, and the pains he shewed 
and the memory he evinced in reciting the cases from which they 
were taken. Poor fellow! he was, with laudable pride, shewing 
