SUPPLY OF PATIENTS TO VETERINARY INFIRMARIES. 329 
experience, under ordinary circumstances, the idea is not 
likelv to occur at all to his mind. 
Further, a startling objection is found in a widely preva¬ 
lent belief than animals in hospitals are made the subjects of 
experiment. The word has a sharp sound, and popularly is 
expressive of untold horrors. No direct charges are 
brought, but the very uncertainty and vagueness of the idea 
invest it with additional terrors as to the animal’s fate. Not 
among the ignorant only are these notions current. 
Reports of the enormities committed by us on various 
hapless subjects are discussed and find favorable reception 
in polite circles. Some of these reports are returned by 
sympathising friends, and until we heard them we had no 
idea what brutes we really were. We have no intention 
to insult the common sense of your readers by any serious 
refutation of these absurdities. Every hospital is open to 
public inspection at all reasonable hours, and what is done 
can be seen and, if desired, made public. 
Special objections refer to certain cases, and particular 
animals. They relate to the difficulty and danger of re¬ 
moval in all acute cases of disease, or very extensive injuries. 
Sheep, we know, are usually consigned to the butcher at 
once; and cattle also, when the disease seems in any of 
its stages unlikely to yield to treatment. These several 
difficulties appears to us surmountable only in two ways : 
1st. By exciting sufficient interest among stock owners to 
induce them to send their sick animals for the benefit of 
future veterinary surgeons. 
2nd. To make it to their own advantage to do so. 
This latter plan, we have no doubt, would be most gene¬ 
rally successful; and it might be carried out, as everything 
in England can be, by co-operation. Without entering 
into premature details, we may mention that in our opinion 
the formation of one or several companies for the purchase 
of diseased animals of all kinds would supply the present 
want; and at the same time we have that faith in the 
science of medicine which leads us to believe the supporters 
of the movement would be amply remunerated for their 
trouble. For any plan that does not include purchase of 
patients we prophecy a failure. 
