MEDICAL MEN AND VETERINARY SURGEONS. 583 
not presume to take the case to themselves, they send word 
by the owner, or the owner reports it as an opinion which the me¬ 
dical man has given, that the case is so and so, and that this or 
the other should be done. On a second visit the owner exhibits 
some displeasure, and the veterinarian is teased, and, perhaps, 
made angry. "‘Mr.-thinks, that if you will examine the 
animal again, you will find that the malady is of a different nature 
from what you seem to suspect; or you will perform a certain 
operation, or give a certain medicine.” This is a civil intimation. 
The next who comes tells us, our apothecary says, “ he is sure 
you have not examined the animal, or you would not have done 
one thing, and you would have done another.’’ Much, much 
oftener we are told, our medical man has given the animal so 
much calomel,” or “has sent him a box of pills—here is one of 
them or "" has sent him to the farrier to be bled.” 
Not a week occurs in which this does not happen twice, thrice, 
or oftener, and we treat the matter as lightly as we can : we give 
a civil answer when we are sufficiently master of ourselves; but 
now and then v\e send back a very foolish, although well de¬ 
served reproof to him who meddles with another person’s pro¬ 
fession. 
I will not refer to the particular subject of the last Leader, ex¬ 
cept to say, that the melancholy circumstances which have very 
lately occurred at Camden Town afford a sufficient illustration 
of the impropriety of a human surgeon giving a decided opinion 
on a case of suspected rabies. A dog, belonging to a young sur¬ 
geon of considerable talent and promise, became ill. The master 
recognized not the nature of the disease, and he sent the animal 
to a knife-grinder, or a blacksmith, in order to be cured. This 
man says that it is a case of distemper, and he will presently cure 
it. Both the surgeon and the smith were bitten by this dog ; 
and both of them died hydrophobous ! Not another word needs 
to be said on this point. 
And now what is the course that the veterinarian has to pur¬ 
sue? One of angry remonstrance ? No ! that will do no good. 
A great deal of that of which we complain, and which we feel, 
perhaps, a little too keenly, is what we might expect. Our pro- 
