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THE VETERINARIAN, SEPTEMBER 1 , 1831 . 
■ " . . . 
Ne quid falsi dicerc audeat, ne quid veri non audcat.—C icero. 
The legal responsibility of the practitioner, medical or veteri¬ 
nary, is a painful subject, and a very perplexing one in some of 
its bearings. It cannot be denied that there is, to all intents and 
purposes, a legal binding contract between the veterinary surgeon 
and his employer. The surgeon offers for sale his skill and at¬ 
tention at a certain price; and if the other binds himself by the 
act of employment to give that price, he has a right to claim the 
valuable commodity for which he bargained. 
The veterinary surgeon, by proclaiming himself a member of 
the profession, asserts that he has the general and ordinary know¬ 
ledge of that profession. It is on the faith of that implied assertion 
that he is employed ; it is that assertion which induces confi¬ 
dence in his employer and the public ; and if he were not com¬ 
pelled to exercise that knowledge, there would be an end to all 
confidence in such transactions. The living of the surgeon de- 
pends on the existence of this confidence, and so does the property 
of the public on the manner in which that confidence is respected. 
Therefore it must be true, as a simple proposition, that “ every 
veterinary surgeon is liable to make compensation in pecuniary 
damages to any person who may entrust him with a patient, for 
any injury that may arise, either through his want of skill or 
want of attention.” 
It may, however, admit of doubt, how far the low and ignorant 
pretender may be liable. Now that there are spreading through 
the country a class of men who have prepared themselves for the 
practice of their profession by a regular and expensive course of 
study, it may be doubted whether the untaught cowleech or black¬ 
smith is liable to action; for common sense might have told the 
employer, that he did not and could not possess the requisite skill. 
Sadi relates in his Gulistan, and Puffendorf cites it with appro¬ 
bation, that a man who had a disorder in his eyes called on a far¬ 
rier for a remedy, and he applied to them a medicine commonly 
used for his patients. The man lost his sight, and brought an 
