282 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
on which we can place implicit reliance ; and among those which 
The Veterinarian contains, there is scarcely one from which 
can be fairly drawn, or from which can be forced by a far 
more malignant critic than our Somersetshire friend, the slightest 
impeachment of the skill of the practitioner. The warning against 
a dangerous and fatal path is but little less important than the 
unfolding of another that promises to lead to success. 
But these every day cases,” as he calls them in another 
part of his letter, they are those of which our practice is made 
up,—they are those about which we are too apt to be careless ; 
and in which we oftener err, and compromise our own reputation 
and the interest of our employers than in more complicated and 
difficult ones. We have again looked over some of these cases to 
which w^e imagine our correspondent refers, and they certainly are 
very similar to many which almost daily occupy us ; yet there is 
a peculiarity in the development, progress, connexion, and ter¬ 
mination of the disease, which afford matter for useful reflection. 
The object of The Veterinarian is the improvement of our 
profession. We are evidently accomplishing this by the insertion 
of papers—and w'e can boast of no small a number of them—which 
well and scientifically treat of new and important points; but 
we are effecting the same purpose, and as surely and rapidly too, 
by encouraging in our junior brethren a habit of observation— 
the practice of recording their cases, and the ambition of con¬ 
tributing their share, be it greater or smaller, to the common 
accumulating stock of science. There are those, and we would 
proudly point them out if we could consistently do so, who are 
becoming, or who have already become, sterling ornaments of our 
profession, whose first attempt at authorship, and that not critically 
correct, the pages of our Journal contain. There are those whose 
maiden essays were condemned by persons as fastidious and hy¬ 
percritical as our friend, who now% we will answer for it, 
search for their names in the table of contents, as affording 
assurance of pleasure and improvement in the perusal of their 
communications. 
But, after all, this accusation comes with an ill grace from 
him who has contributed nothing at all to the value of our work. 
If we occasionally insert very common-place” cases, let him, 
