92 
ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON COW-SPAYING. 
bein g cruel in the extreme, from inflicting unnecessary tor¬ 
ture on a numerous class of animals. On the ground of 
cruelty alone, more defensible cases, in my opinion, have been 
taken up by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 
than the experiment inaugurated by Mr. Gamgee, and its 
public prohibition should be embodied as a merciful clause 
in the legislative act for abolishing the system of torture 
which vivisection has so long disgraced the French Veterinary 
College at Alfort. 
A few words before parting with Mr. Gamgee. That 
gentleman has been so much in the habit of speaking so dis¬ 
paragingly of his professional brethren, and exalting himself 
at their expense, as well as of interfering in an unbecoming 
spirit towards others, like myself, in the more humble branches 
of the art, that I may claim indulgence for a sentence or two 
by way of plain and inoffensive admonition. He occupies a 
high position as the first professor in a newly instituted 
college ; but that position is honorable only so far as the im¬ 
portant duties attached to it are performed with good sense, 
exemplary forbearance, and great discretion. While scien¬ 
tific research and acquisition of knowledge are leading attain¬ 
ments, he should remember that practical information is the 
one thing needful in a teacher, and that it is his province to 
use every opportunity in acquiring that which he cannot be 
thought to possess from want of personal experience, in order 
to impress on his readers the great advantages which useful, 
practical tuition imparts in a department of study like veteri¬ 
nary surgery, which is essentially practical, and not specula¬ 
tive. He should lay to heart what that eminently practical 
surgeon, Mr. Syme, the distinguished professor of surgery 
in Edinburgh, has said regarding young and inexperienced 
teachers. “ These,” he told his patrons, “ will take the 
most certain steps for the mystifying the minds of their 
hearers, since, instead of giving them well-defined ideas, 
which, from their f practical 9 application, can be fully 
understood and distinctly recollected, they will bewilder 
them with a maze of uncertainty and conjecture.^ Now, 
Mr. Gamgee acts up to the very letter of Mr. Syme’s 
description of a young and inexperienced teacher. In the 
printed advertisements published by him in journals and 
newspapers, he thus addresses himself to the public on 
the new veterinary college (I quote his own words):— 
The object of the establishment in view is to afford 
more ample opportunity for the cultivation of veterinary 
science and art, and thus elevating the standard of education 
for veterinary surgeons, and ensuring a better supply of 
