694 
THE SPORTING DEPARTMENT. 
the separation of medical from surgical practice; a division, 
there is reason to apprehend, of hurt instead of benefit to society. 
I say their practice has become separate; for human ingenuity 
has not yet succeeded in distinguishing any boundary lines: I 
might say, any difference whatever in the science of the one and 
the other. 
Although farriery (in the vulgar sense of the phrase) was practised 
for years before “ the veterinary art” sprang up, yet has not the 
science (which is modem) obtained a place in professional society 
w ithout interfering w 7 ith, if not intrenching upon, some others’pur¬ 
suits and callings. It has stripped the poor farrier of all his sup¬ 
posed instinctive sagacity—his proudest attribute; it has uncloaked 
the squires’ groom and coachman, and exposed their audacious 
ignorance; it has picked holes in the coat of the stud and training 
groom, and likewise in the jacket of the jockey; it has made the 
professed horseman and sportsman look askance ere they offered 
an opinion; and it has prevented medical men from meddling 
\yith that which they (though they think they do) really know 
nothing about. AH this has tended more or less to raise up 
enemies to the veterinary profession; among which the most 
implacable always have been, and still continue to be, grooms and 
coachmen, and gentlemen in those shapes. No art, in its way, 
has proved, and must and will prove, of greater benefit and 
advantage to society in general than the veterinary. It is true 
we ourselves cannot feel, or will estimate, w 7 hat our horse feels: 
but we may feelybr him as we w 7 ould feel for a human being, at 
least in degree; and as far as interest is concerned, perhaps that 
degree may be apt to range higher in one case than the other. 
A humane master will not consider the pecuniary worth of his 
suffering horse in calling in aid for his relief; and a master who 
is alone guided by that, will be apt to tamper with even human 
malady. 
My object in setting out (and I must beg pardon for some little 
digression from it) was to shew from w 7 hat arts and sciences the 
veterinary has been derived ; and thence to draw a theoretical de¬ 
duction that a ^recurrence to those arts and sciences could not but 
prove at all times of very great service to veterinary practice. Of 
