AND OPERATIONS UPON LIVING ANIMALS. 
359 
wanted most to be acquainted with—he, as beautifully illustrat¬ 
ing some of the principles of his own practice, and now and 
then (and he liked it not the worse for that) convicting him of 
error in physiology and practice too—and we, as containing that 
which most of all came home to our business and bosoms. 
The conversation was a lengthened one, and towards the close 
of it he confessed, that the few glimpses which we had afforded 
him,—too few and far between—of genuine veterinary physiologt/ 
and pathologyy had given a colouring altogether new to some 
principles, and not altogether unimportant ones, both of theory 
and practice: he confessed that he had long doubted the accu¬ 
racy of many an experiment on which several points of physio¬ 
logy were supposed to be founded, the legitimacy of the con¬ 
clusion, which w^as drawn from experiments, by which, from 
their cruelty and protraction, nature was driven from her 
usual course, and completely outraged ; and he was pleased to 
refer to certain language addressed to some of the great men 
assembled at the last dinner of the veterinary students, as having 
made a deep impression upon him at the time, and of the accu¬ 
racy of which, and the hopes which the physiological inquirer 
might now justly begin to cherish, he was more and more con¬ 
vinced. The speaker stated his belief that "‘when physiology 
would, at some future time, be securely based on observation 
and experiment, the task would be effected by a veterinary sur¬ 
geon. The human practitioner conducted his experiments almost 
at haphazard; not ignorant perhaps of the common anatomy of 
various animals, but ignorant of those minute differences of tissue 
and arrangement which influenced function, and thus influenced 
the result of his experiments, and frequently rendered them of 
little or no worth. It was he aloney to whom every day afforded 
lessons of comparative anatomy—to whom every day displayed 
fresh proof of the subtle, unsuspected, but controlling influence 
of function, by the minutest differences in structure ; and whom, 
and most important of all, long habit had brought this to bear 
on the mysteries of pathology; it was he alone who was compe¬ 
tent to and who would execute the task.’’ 
This was thought at the time to be bold, and somewhat un¬ 
authorized language, and our readers may be assured that we 
exulted at its receiving the cordial approbation of such a man. 
The conversation then turned on the manner in which these 
researches should be conducted, and the gifted instructor and 
the humble vet. united in expressing their perfect detestation 
of that system of reckless, useless cruelty, in which so many 
indulged. They spoke of the disgusting indifference with which 
many otherwise excellent teachers and writers had alluded to. 
