660 
Mi&ttlUnta. 
Veterinary Periodicals. 
We venture to lay before our readers that which Mr. Blaine, 
in the new edition of his Veterinary Outlines, has said of 
the importance of veterinary periodicals. We should not have 
dared to have said so much ourselves, although we subscribe to 
the truth of every word. If our readers also acknowledge the 
truth of Mr. Blaine’s remarks, we trust that they will shew it in 
a way that we need not point out. 
We cannot but congratulate every well wisher to the art on 
the appearance of a periodical gathering of the buds of science 
as they start into view; and we venture to affirm, that, with the 
exception of the establishment of our national school, nothing 
has occurred of so much importance to the veterinary art as 
these journals. We only fear whether there is yet sufficient 
public spirit to support both; if there be, so much the better for 
the community; but should the market flag from being over¬ 
stocked, and if no friendly means can be devised to continue to 
us the benefits of the talents of the whole, we yet hope that the 
weaker will retire handsomely, without keeping up a hostile 
competition, which might be fatal to both. It would be a truly 
national evil that we should entirely lose this periodical dis¬ 
semination of the many events which occur in our practice, and 
the many changes which take place in our opinions. It would 
be lamentable that we should suffer the monthly roll-call to be 
silenced, which at once brings us into literary collision and pro¬ 
fessional compact; and which, like the Sunday clothes of the 
poor, serves ‘ to rub off the rust of the week.’ A periodical 
journal of any art is an encyclopsedia, which contains not the 
acquirements of one individual only, however talented, but the 
knowledge and experience of the many ; and in one important 
particular it is even superior: the encyclopedia rests as it is; 
the journal marches with the art it commemorates. It is a 
register of facts more than of opinions; and, by its means, many 
a spark is fanned into a brilliant flame, and many a talented but 
slothful genius is by such aid stirred up to appear in a page, who 
would sicken at the prospect of a volume. Neither is it one of 
the least of the benefits likely to accrue from it, that it will pre¬ 
vent many of the more remote practitioners from falling into the 
narrow and empirical practice of pretending to secrets and in- 
fallibles; on the contrary, we shall all take on a habit of pre¬ 
paring to give and receive, and of looking forward to a pro¬ 
fessional pic nic , to which every one will be happy to contribute 
his mite or his meal; which, like the bread cast on the waters, 
will eventually return enlarged tenfold.” 
