IN THE VETERINARIAN. 
183 
The Highland Society of Scotland, feeling, in the language 
of Sir John Hope at their last meeting, that while it was 
very proper for them as a body, and as individuals, to promote 
the amelioration of the breeds of their different descriptions of 
cattle and other stock, if they did not beside take the means of 
preserving the health of stock, they did less than their duty,’’ 
founded a school of veterinary instruction, embracing all the le¬ 
gitimate objects of the veterinarian’s care; or, at least, they con¬ 
tributed most zealously to the formation of that school, and ap¬ 
pointed the professor of it lecturer to themselves; and, the Society 
continuing to he connected with that school, it continues to embrace, 
(what the known character of the Professor would otherwise have 
secured to it), adequate instruction with regard to the diseases of 
all domesticated animals. 
What is the consequence of this?—why, that the pupils of 
that school, being known to possess, generally speaking, a suffi¬ 
cient knowledge of the whole of their profession, receive, in the 
language of Mr. Clarke, "" the amplest confidence of their em¬ 
ployers ; and the illiterate farrier and cowleech, with his empi¬ 
rical nostrums, are driven from the field.” 
There is scarcely a dairy or distillery in Scotland, where many 
cows are kept or oxen fattened, the medical treatment of which is 
not superintended by a veterinary surgeon ; and the director olf one 
of them told us, in the last autumn, that they had found their 
interest in so doing. There is scarcely a district agricultural 
society that has not its regularly attached veterinary surgeon ; 
implying in the appointment the kind of knowledge which he 
possessed, and binding him to the diligent study and practice 
of those branches of his profession. On the other hand, in the 
metropolis of England, although a veterinary man is attached to 
most large horse establishments, w'e know not the dairy or the 
distillery where he is systematically the medical adviser; and we 
do know that the aggregate practice of all the veterinary surgeons 
on the twelve thousand dairy cows of the metropolis would not 
afford a decent subsistence for one family. 
In the country, too, the veterinary surgeon who has proved that 
he understands the diseases of cattle, is perhaps, after a somewhat 
long trial, freely employed; but until he has given this proof, the 
cowleech is resorted to, ten to one sooner, because it is imagined 
that the latter may know something, while it is feared or believed 
that the former knows nothing. 
Such is the bearing, the cruel bearing of things on the reputa¬ 
tion and emolument of the veterinary practitioner; and we are 
inclined to think that the bearing is still more injurious on the 
interests of the agriculturist. 
