RESPONSIBILITY OF THE VETERINARY SURGEON. 643 
blame on the colonel. The colonel was sought out, and was 
sternly and indignantly questioned, and dared to the proof. A 
veterinary surgeon was then implicated, who had insinuated that 
the operation of bleeding was not performed properly, and, indeed, 
that it was a case that did not require bleeding. He was sought 
out; he was found with a great deal of difficulty, for he long kept 
out of sight; but he was found, and brought very seriously to 
book ; and the consequence was, that the whole party were 
ashamed of the affair, and our veterinarian heard no more about 
the matter, except that, a year or two afterwards, he learned 
that his straightforward and manly conduct had gained him the 
friendship of the gentleman referred to in the owner’s letter, a 
man of high character and great influence, and whose friendship 
and patronage were honourable, as well as otherwise valuable to 
the possessor. 
One or two lessons may be learned from this. Extreme cir¬ 
cumstances alone can justify any departure from the regular and 
professional way of going to work. A sensible man would give 
our friend credit for the conversion of a common domestic utensil 
into a valuable surgical instrument:—but, after all, a poker was 
not a budding-iron ; and the majority of people have not all the 
discrimination they should have, and our practitioner had well nigh 
suffered severely for his promptitude and skill. His uncompro¬ 
mising defence of that which his conscience told him was right, 
alone saved him. From proper and honourable responsibility he 
shrunk not; but he was not to be clamoured down, either by the 
supposed injured person, or the nonsensical intermeddlers in the 
business. We have again and again urged on practitioners the 
cultivation, not of a litigious, but of a firm and unshrinking 
spirit. Let there be a thorough acquaintance with our business, 
an honourable performance of our duty to our employer; and then 
comes our duty to our brethren, namely, to oppose ourselves to 
those indignities which are too frequently heaped upon our yet 
undervalued profession. But the limits of our leader are trans¬ 
gressed. We have more in our budget. 
