158 RESPKCTABILITY OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
hounds of the late Lord Middleton dying without an apparent cause, 
their stomachs were found to contain the fur of foxes in an unaltered 
state, and to this cause was their death attributed. This occurred 
when his lordship hunted Warwickshire. Every dog should be 
purged occasionally, to ensure his good health, puppies especially. 
As these diseases have hitherto lain without the reach of precept, 
every little accidental circumstance that has the slightest asso¬ 
ciation with what may be considered likely to he the causes of them 
should be attended to, and weighed. Sebright, huntsman to Lord 
Fitzwilliam, told me, last winter, that his chief dependence for 
guarding against loss of life by distemper was physicking his 
young hounds with salts, when they come first into kennel, and 
at their walks. 
Respectability of the Veterinary Profession. —I need not say 
that I am anxious for all that tends to the welfare and respecta¬ 
bility of the veterinary profession, and hope to live to see a son 
of mine a member of it. “ Virtue,” says Cicero, “ is estimated 
by its utility;” and how can a man be more usefully or honourably 
employed than in diminishing suffering, either animal or human? 
In reference to this point, I have been much gratified by the perusal 
of the remarks of Messrs. Spooner, Mayer, and yourself, on the 
means to be used towards insuring and increasing the respecta¬ 
bility of the veterinary profession. “ Hold up your heads,” I say, 
and go on.” I can see no reason why a regularly educated 
veterinary surgeon, properly conducting himself, should not rank 
with members of any other profession by which the means of pro¬ 
curing money are made available to them. 
I have perused 3 mur Essay on Humanity to Brutes with much 
pleasure, as likewise the able and just review of it in the number 
of The Veterinarian for June last. That you have well and 
powerfully advocated the claims of the brute creation to the con¬ 
sideration and kindness of man, cannot, on any account, be denied. 
The Essay of Dr. Styles I have not had an opportunity of reading: 
I am, however, able to make one or two observations from the pe¬ 
rusal of the review of }'our own. 
Does any one dispute the existence of moral qualities” in 
brutes, insisted upon by ^murself ? Who is it that sneers at the 
idea that the habits and instincts of brutes should be designated as 
“ moral qualities,” and described as filial affections” and con¬ 
jugal attachment ?” Is the history of the turtle-dove a fable ? What 
were the feelings of a cow of my own that bewailed the loss of 
her calf for upwards of three months, and to such an extent that 
it was necessary to shut her up at night, although in the middle 
of summer ? for no one about the house could sleep for her. 
What but a ‘‘ moral qualitv,” and one of the highest rank, pre¬ 
vented the half-starved dog you allude to from helping himself to 
