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THE VETERINARIAN, MAY 1 , 1862 . 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
THE SUPPLY OE CATTLE PATIENTS TO CENTRAL 
VETERINARY INFIRMARIES AND SCHOOLS. 
The practical application of the science of medicine to 
the treatment of the diseases of cattle and sheep in a 
scholastic institution is a desideratum devoutly to be wished 
for. However valuable the inculcation of principles may 
be, none can doubt that this would rise in proportion as the 
pupils had the opportunity of studying disease by a daily 
attendance on patients of this class. The means of obtain¬ 
ing them is, however, a question beset with difficulties far 
greater than would be supposed. 
It might reasonably be thought, now that England is 
covered with a network of railways, all of which converge 
towards London, that a central infirmary here placed would 
be filled to repletion with the sick animals of the farm. 
The Royal Veterinary College, however, in common with 
every other institution of the kind in Europe, finds that the 
advantages it affords for the treatment of diseased cattle 
are not made use of to the extent they ought to be by the 
agricultural community. Men who are the sincere friends 
of the veterinary profession, and the earnest advocates of 
the extension of medical science, prefer, nevertheless, to keep 
their sick cattle at home, rather than incur the risk of their 
loss at a distance. A low charge, or even no charge for 
treatment, added to the zeal of such persons, is not a suffi¬ 
cient inducement to tempt them to depart from their ac¬ 
customed course. 
The truth is that it is not the distance, nor the trouble, 
nor the expense, nor the want of confidence in those under 
whose care the animals would be placed, which is the ruling 
motive; but that an opportunity is lost, bv their removal 
from the farm, of turning them to a profitable account in 
the event of the disease assuming a dangerous character. 
