3.28 SUPPLY OF PATIENTS TO VETERINARY INFIRMARIES. 
of the teacher. What does all the so-called practical know¬ 
ledge apart from science often amount to? How many 
years’ experience are required to render an unthinking 
and uneducated man, in the matter of therapeutics, and 
entirely devoid of principles, a cautious, reflecting., and safe 
practitioner? Let us rather have the student, who has well 
spent his two or three sessions under the guidance of men 
who are capable of directing his inquiries, and who have the 
means to illustrate their teaching, than the man who has 
spent thirty years of his life in a ceaseless repetition of the 
formula handed to him through past generations, and who 
probably thinks no more of inquiring into the laws of organ¬ 
ization, or the action of the medicines he uses, than he does 
of discussing the merits of the 4 Principia.’ 
The causes that militate against a sufficient supply of 
patients to veterinary infirmaries are numerous, and apply 
with various degrees of force to the different animals. Some 
of these causes are general, others are special or limited. 
General objections present themselves on the score of expense 
and trouble. The experiment of free admission for cattle 
and sheep has been tried by us as well as others, and has 
failed. The difficulty of the expense of transit, however, 
remains; and, as you observe, any benefit obtained from the 
animal’s carcass is lost; and in the instance of milking cows, 
also, another considerable item may be placed on the wrong 
side of the account. 
Treatment upon the owners’ premises is commonly an in¬ 
expensive thing. The farmer himself enjoys some excite¬ 
ment in the act of trying a little amateur practice. Beyond 
all question, men have a taste for playing with medicine, as 
children delight to sport with fire, and frequently with much 
the same effect. If the owner lack the taste or the time, 
there is at hand the cow-leech , who for the merest trifle is 
ready to do his best—worst it may be?—for the patients. 
Next may be placed the amusement, or whatever else it 
may be called, to be derived from frequent visits to the shed 
or stable of the sick. 
To the unversed in these matters, this remark may appear 
almost ridiculous; but we can assure them that the satisfac¬ 
tion so derived is not small; in fact, we believe, that the 
owner of a sick animal no more thinks of sending it to a 
public hospital, than he thinks of going to one himself. 
If by chance he be urged to do so, or the case is hopeless 
or nearly so, or it wearies him, or anv direct advantage can 
be shown to arise from it, the step may be taken ; but in our 
