182 THE NEGLECT OF CATTLE MEDICINE 
a most respectable practitioner thus feelingly describes in one of 
the volumes of The Veterinarian : “ Many persons, by whose 
confidence and support I have been honoured, have bullocks and 
sheep as well as horses, and which occasionally require veteri¬ 
nary aid; but, alas! when I was first consulted, I was obliged to 
confess my total ignorance of the subject. I should have been 
an impostor, had I professed an acquaintance with the disorders 
of these animals when I had never studied them. The conse¬ 
quence was, that some other person was called in, while I was a 
mere looker-on, in which capacity many painful reflections upon 
the great omission in my early education were forced upon me; 
and I was taught, by dearly-bought experience, that a great deal 
more is to be learned in the veterinary profession than some of 
our instructors seem to imagine.” 
This eloquent avowal of the situation of nine-tenths of the 
veterinary profession, when they commence practice, will suffi¬ 
ciently explain to Mr. Clarke the reason why there have been 
so few writers on cattle medicine in The Veterinarian. 
They would have been impostors, if they had professed an ac¬ 
quaintance with that which they had never studied,” and it will 
make him and us grateful that there have been so many and 
such^good writers on the subject. We may truly say, that the 
profession generally owes almost all that it knows of the diseases 
of cattle to the pages of The Veterinarian. 
We are glad that an agriculturist has taken up this subject, 
for it is in his power to afford material assistance in remedying 
the evil. The veterinary profession in England owes its origin 
to agriculturists. The corner stones were these memorable reso¬ 
lutions of the Odiham Society, in July 1785: Resolved, that 
farriery is a most useful science, and intimately connected with 
the interests of agriculture. That its improvement, established 
on a study of the anatomy, diseases, and care of animals, parti¬ 
cularly of horses, cows, and sheep, will be an essential benefit to 
agriculture; and that the society will consult the good of the 
community, by encouraging such means as are likely to produce 
the study of farriery upon rational and scientific principles.” 
The building seemed to have been completed by this equally 
memorable communication of the committee of the Veterinary 
College to the Odiham Society, bearing date the 18th February, 
1790, stating, that they are engaged on the reformation and 
improvement of farriery, and the treatment of cattle in general.” 
Strange to say! this writing was scarcely dried ere the control of 
the Odiham Society was shaken off; and this institution, which 
was to perfect “ the treatment of cattle in general,” became, 
under a committee of professional men, a mere school for horse 
knowledge. 
