VETERINARY SURGERY. 
165 
which every one thinks he know^s so well.’ There are few sub¬ 
jects, if any, upon which so many men think themselves qualified 
to sav someth ins'. The man wdio diets or dresses, and the man 
who rides or merely owns one of these quadrupeds, equally con¬ 
siders his opinion on his maladies as entitled to some respect. 
Even medical men, who ought to know a great deal better, and 
are therefore less excusable, will occasionally step into our pro¬ 
vince, and assume pretensions which do not at all become them.” 
He properly adds that ‘‘ these empirical pretensions to vete¬ 
rinary skill are founded solely upon ignorance—they are incon¬ 
sistent with a knowledge of the present state of the art, of its 
objects, its practitioners, and the extent and nature of their 
studies. But few are aware how the subject has been and still 
is cultivated. Its schools are hardly known to exist, its im¬ 
portance is not recognized—its objects are misunderstood. A 
little information on these points would, at least among the en¬ 
lightened and uninterested, dispel much of the confidence which 
error produces.” 
He then touches on the scope of veterinary science. It is a 
mistake to suppose that it has to do with no animal but the 
horse; yet it is a mistake which a few worthless veterinarians have 
encouraged rather than rectified. Ignorance and puppyism are 
the only two things that ever deter a man from relieving pain. 
The pitiful greatness that will not relieve a sufferer because he is 
meali, is itself more contemptible than the animal it despises; 
and he who withholds his aid from any, can do justice to none.” 
These are noble sentiments, and reflect on our author the hio-hest 
credit. 
He now takes a rapid view of the origin of the veterinary art— 
the high character it sustained in the early ages of Greece and 
Rome—its degraded state in the darker ages—and the continued 
and seemingly inseparable union between the blacksmith and the 
veterinary surgeon, when that between the apothecary and the 
barber had been dissolved. This leads him to the establishment 
of the first modern veterinary school in France, when repeated 
epidemics had swept away nearly one-half the cattle in most of 
the states of hAiro|)c—the incalculable benelit which had accrued 
Irom the establishmcnl ol that school—the gradual rise of others 
