ON VETERINARY REFORM. 
673 
have much knowledge,* and the sale of medicines at the College, 
as to price, accords well with the compositions; but very few 
veterinary surgeons, I imagine, use them; for my part, no one 
has a greater contempt for what is here called a capital resait; 
but some forms are necessary for medicines in common use, in 
which the most efficacious should be compounded in a way that 
their properties shall not be changed by chemical agency, and, as 
far as possible, in a way that they will not spoil by keeping. 
While on the subject of medicine, I must be permitted to say, 
that I fear we know but little, farther than that aloes will purge, 
&c. &c.; and that unless those who have opportunities for experi¬ 
ments will make use of them, and record the results, how are we 
to improve ? 
Of the individual qualifications of the college officers, it would 
ill become me to speak; but the discordance of their opinions and 
practice, year after year, without producing any change, tells 
me that—at least that they possess more than a common share of 
forbearance. But there should be an addition of talent and expe¬ 
rience derived from country practice, in which very different dis¬ 
eases are met with to those in large towns. What, for instance, is 
known, or I should perhaps say taught, on the subject of par¬ 
turition, and the diseases to which both dam and young are liable ? 
I mention the first, because I still entertain a lively sense of what 
I felt when called in to some of my first cases. In short, every 
thing which is necessary for a general practitioner to know should 
be taught at the College : and as to the attending the lectures in 
town—independent of the charity-like appearance, the time oc¬ 
cupied in passing to and fro may be, I think, better employed in 
the hospital. To some it occasions bodily fatigue, and which 
naturally damps an ardour necessary for the successful prosecu¬ 
tion of study, and probably diverts the attention of others. If 
the college f unds, with the present fee, are not sufficient, I have 
no doubt thirty guineas would be as readily paid. Of the inter¬ 
nal government of the College, or the propriety of admitting 
practitioners as subscribers, I have nothing to say ; but I think if 
such alterations as I have mentioned were made, and a proper 
committee appointed to examine the students, there would be 
little occasion to regulate the period of their pupilage. 
Having stated thus much as regards the College, I shall pro¬ 
ceed to another cause of the slow growth of veterinary know¬ 
ledge, and which was first brought to my mind by reading 
accounts of discussions and communications in your work, which 
did not shew those feelings which should exist among us. But in 
taking upon me to animadvert on the conduct of my professional 
brethren, I would not be suspected of malevolence, or any im- 
