428 
ON VETERINARY CONSULTATIONS. 
fications: and, ten to one, if he does not start some of them 
before he has done, and follow them up too. We, simple souls, 
had no such notions about the matter, and had not said a word 
relating to all these fine things; and on the following day the 
owner turns upon us, Why, Mr.-, you never told us any 
thing about this ; I can understand the case now; should you have 
done exactly so and so and thus, with every wish to do that 
which is honourable, our friend, now and then, effects no little 
mischief. 
Another friend, as good a fellow as ever lived, and who would 
scorn a dirty transaction, does his share of mischief in his way. 
He might have gained, he probably had gained, from us all 
that it was necessary for him to know, but he puts the same 
questions to the groom ; he puts some of them incautiously, w^e 
may almost say suspiciously; and then, long ere he is out of 
earshot, he begins to give his opinion, and tells us what should 
be done. He does not make it a consultation, but he pours 
forth his dicta, good-naturedly, but authoritatively, and, if we 
attempt to reply, he is in a hurry, and must be gone : however, 
he must previously accompany us to the stable, or the draw¬ 
ing-room, and there he enters a vast deal too much into parti¬ 
culars, and speaks of half a hundred things which never entered 
our minds, and of the propriety or even the existence of which 
we have not the slightest belief. And thus he too does harm 
where he dreams not of it, and would not for the world be the 
voluntary cause of it. 
Shall we lay down a few rules, by which our consultations 
may be guided, and which will make them pleasant and useful ? 
In the first place, all those assumed airs of importance, which 
in nineteen cases out of twenty are the mere cover of incompe¬ 
tence, should be laid aside. One practitioner meets not the 
other, to be reminded of or to admit his inferiority. He comes 
not prepared to sacrifice his relative reputation, and possibly the 
confidence of his employer, to the false, or, at least, the obtruded 
pretensions of another. Friend meets friend, to consult together 
on the accomplishment of a very important object,-—the assuag¬ 
ing of the pain or the saving of the life of a valuable animal; 
