REMARKS ON THE TREATMENT OF OPEN JOINTS. 147 
in all probability it was assuming much importance on my part 
to stand in judgment upon the practice of those from whom I 
naturally hoped to obtain such instruction as would enable me, 
with satisfaction to my own conscience, to undertake the care of 
a valuable animal labouring under disease; but, at any rate, I 
will now lay a few remarks upon the subject before the public, 
and let them decide whether the impression I first received was 
correct or not. I never have, neither ever will I, indulge in 
detraction merely for the sake of gratifying the appetite for this 
vice which exists so largely in human nature: it is one of the 
meanest passions to which we are subject, feeding on the repu¬ 
tation of others, without adding any thing to our own. I hope, 
therefore, that those who are inclined to imagine that any of the 
expressions which I may use are to be attributed to ill-will and 
malevolence, will suspend their condemnation; for I can assure 
them that my object in making the few following observations on 
this point, is not to direct against any party the shafts%f spleen, 
but to warn the veterinary pupil against, and to convince him of, 
the impropriety of a practice inculcated at the institution from 
which he expects to derive his knowledge, but which I unhesi¬ 
tatingly affirm, is far from being remarkable for the soundness 
of its practical doctrines, or the successful issue of the treatment 
adopted within its walls. 
I fancy I hear some one exclaim against my presumption, in 
thus elevating myself into a Mentor, and in thus pitting myself, 
upon a practical subject, against such high authority as a teacher 
in the Veterinary College: but n’importe; I am not dazzled by 
the tinsel of a name—I never was destined to be “ a puppet 
moved by wires in the hands of others”—I cannot suck in an 
untenable doctrine, because an influential man thinks fit to say 
“ Sic volo, sic jubeo; stat pro ratione voluntas;” 
u Thus I wish and order; my will stands in the place of 
reason.” I will not renounce the evidence Of my own senses—I 
will not compromise my opinion when it is supported by, or 
founded upon, facts as clear as the sun at noonday; conse¬ 
quently I have ever been accustomed to look for myself, bearing 
still in mind the aphorism of Horace, 
“ Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, 
Quara qua; sunt oculis subjecta fidclibus 
“ The facts which are merely told, produce a cold impression, 
compared with that of those which arc presented to the eye.” 
Thus I was led to inquire a little into the causes which produced 
