PROFESSIONAL AFFAIRS. 645 
in the way of dieting with linseed tea, bran mashes, mild 
tonics, &c. 
The horsekeeper afterwards acknowledged that he had 
given a few tonics, and savin was one of the ingredients. 
On my asking for the recipe, he went to fetch it, but came 
back, saying he had lent it to the blacksmith, who was 
attending some other person’s horses, but he produced one 
which he said was a prescription for cordial balls. Among 
the ingredients for this were oil of fern, salts of tartar (sub¬ 
carbonate of potass), savin, some curious preparation of 
sulphur and antimony, and five or six other ingredients, of 
which I forget the names. He was dismissed without a 
moment’s notice, and he sued Mr. B— for a month’s wages, 
on the ground that he had been wrongfully dismissed. The 
judge, in summing up the case, told him that he had tried 
his experiments long enough, and Mr. B— was quite right 
in sending him off, as, according to the rate the horses were 
dying—nine in a fortnight—if he had kept him a month 
longer there might have been other eighteen dead. 
“ON PROFESSIONAL AFFAIRS.” 
Dear Messrs. Editors. —Your leader in the last months 
number on the subject of “ Examination of Practitioners,” 
will have been matter of no inconsiderable satisfaction to 
to those of your readers interested in the cause of veterinary 
science, the healthful complexion of your remarks con¬ 
trasting agreeably with the languid aspect which has gra¬ 
dually been overspreading professional affairs lately. I have 
now been connected with the veterinary profession several 
years, which is my w r arrant for begging the indulgence of a 
little space in your next number for a few “facts and obser¬ 
vations” that may, perhaps, just now be ruminated for the 
general good. 
First, then, on the subject of examining practitioners with 
a view to conferring the advantage of admission as members 
of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. There would 
assuredly exist among us no dissent from a kindly action 
being exercised to the advantage of another, did the question 
but resolve itself into individual circumstance; but in legis¬ 
lating for a community as ours there are other and higher 
duties to influence and constrain, too closely interwoven with 
good faith and obligation to all those of the past, of the 
present, and of the future, as connected with our profes- 
