EXAMINATION OF VETERINARY PRACTITIONERS, 717 
those who have passed the ordeal, and, in the second place, 
there is not a practitioner in the country who has not gradu¬ 
ated at college who could answer five questions on the prin¬ 
ciples of the profession, although he may have been able to 
earn hundreds of pounds every year, and to diagnose the 
generality of diseases correctly. I know how it used to be 
with myself previous to graduating. I then did that which 
others before me had done, and not because I knew why I did 
it. I ordered hot and cold fomentations as now, but I knew 
not the principles which should govern these operations; 
true, 1 had a vague idea that these would lower inflammatory 
action, but what inflammation was, and how these could 
effect its reduction, I knew not, although I could talk glibly 
enough of evaporation and the like. If you asked me how aloes 
acted, I could tell you that they produced purgation. But 
if you had asked me how the difference in purgation was pro¬ 
duced by Epsom salts, aloes, calomel, oils, &c., I should 
have been at a loss to tell. The history of the heart’s action 
I knew not; and although something was known of diges¬ 
tion, learnt from such works as the f Stomach, and its Diffi¬ 
culties/ yet the why and because of the definite arrangement 
of all the parts necessary for the completion of the process 
was not understood, neither could it be, or else the labours 
of a Spooner, a Simonds, a Morton, and a Varnell, are 
well-nigh worthless. No; our old practitioners work from 
experience, but not from principle. They live in a fog of 
physic, and rob dame Nature of the glory of a cure. This is 
my experience both of myself and of them, and although the 
educated man cannot often make it apparent that he is supe¬ 
rior, yet he has the satisfaction of knowing what he is aiming 
at, and for this he must thank his college education. Then, re¬ 
iterating my former statement, I say, do not knock the plucked 
birds entirely off the perch by any system of registration, 
for I have done everything which could be done in my case 
to become one of you. I presented myself for examination 
a second time, but was told that I must graduate again before 
being eligible, although mine had in the interval been a life 
of severe work and study. All 1 say is, let us try to be just 
to those who have not been fortunate. 
Yours truly, 
A Graduate forty years old. 
To the Editors of * The Veterinarian 
