222 
THE PRESENTATION OF 
drugs which would produce a certain eftect on the human being, 
would produce the same effect on the horse—with some differ¬ 
ence only, perhaps some great difference, in the dose. I thought 
that I should vomit him with tartar emetic, and purge him with 
jalap. I soon, however, fouhd that I was wrong here—I had 
something to forget as well as much to learn ; and anxious ob¬ 
servation and numerous experiments convinced me that the dis¬ 
eases of the horse and the human being were often-essentially 
different—their treatment, perhaps, the same as to the grand 
principle, but strangely different in the application of that prin¬ 
ciple, and the operation of medicines setting at defiance all my 
preconceived opinions. I could not vomit by ipecacuanha, or 
nauseate by tobacco, and scarcely ease pain by opium: in fact, 
I had every thing to learn. 
I then considered the character and standing in society to 
which my pupils had a right to look, and which, in fact, be¬ 
longed to those who practised my new profession. I saw some 
estimable men among them—men of high talent and acquire¬ 
ments ; but I saw a great many more who had nothing estimable 
in their general conduct, and whose practice was grossly empi¬ 
rical ; and I saw, also, that it was in vain that the man of cha¬ 
racter and talent strove to emerge from the general mass. He 
might be esteemed, and might associate with those who knew his 
worth, but he had no claim that he could enforce to general re¬ 
gard. He was a farrier, and, as such, excluded from the superior 
and almost from the middle classes of society. 
I then bethought me how I should give respectability to such 
a profession; and the mode of effecting this was soon afforded 
me. Veterinary surgeons began to be appointed to cavalry re¬ 
giments ; and I prayed and demanded that they should be ap¬ 
pointed in the same way as the human surgeons—that they 
should be commissioned officers—that they should rank as gen¬ 
tlemen. With some difficulty I obtained my object, and thus 
gave to the veterinary profession a new character and import¬ 
ance. I gave to its members a claim to respect where they had 
not otherwise forfeited that claim. I gave them a right to ad¬ 
mission not only to a superior class of society, but to the highest 
