THE VETERINARIAN, DECEMBER 1 , 1862 . 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
DO WE PROGRESS? 
This may not be an inappropriate inquiry at the close of 
the year, now that another has nearly rolled away into the 
eternity of the past. But to answer it we must make com¬ 
parisons, and these, we are told by some persons, “ are 
odious.” Yet it is only by them that we can satisfactorily ’ 
arrive at a solution of this question. We do not, however, 
hesitate to assert that we have both progressed and are pro¬ 
gressing. For a proof of the first position, we have only 
to look at the state of the profession as it now is and as 
it was fifty years ago. How marked has been its advance¬ 
ment ! But to particularise all that has been done would 
occupy both more time and space than we have at our 
command. 
We are not, however, among those who repudiate and 
contemn the past; not like the free-thinkers and atheists of 
the last century, who were wont to say that they wished all 
past history buried in oblivion; they forgetting that without 
the past the present would not have been so far advanced. 
It is not true that our forefathers were fools, and the 
theory is absurd which supposes that there has been in 
mankind a gradual advancement to its present state of 
knowledge. Much has been forgotten and lost, for “ man 
was formed upright, but he has sought out many inventions.” 
He was perfect when he came out from the hands of his 
Maker. 
As a proof of the second position, we believe we may as 
confidently refer to what is now taking place among us. No 
longer can the body be satirically said to be represented by 
the counterpart of Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones. And yet 
we nevertheless think that a comparison in a certain sense 
may be made, for “ a noise is heard,” and “ behold a shaking, 
