LECTURE AT THE FARMERS’ CLUB. 
51 
a few exceptions, as illiberal as the rest of their class; and thus 
they have fared. In those homesteads where the veterinary 
surgeon has been a stranger, where farmers button up their pockets 
at his approach, lest a moiety should be required from their purse 
towards providing the clean shirt and decent habiliments for the 
respectable professional man ;—there, where regarded as a dis¬ 
agreeable interloper, treated only with half confidence, with every 
obstruction thrown in his way from the ignorance of those about 
him;—there the malady makes its way unchecked. But among 
the few where the professional man is a frequent guest, considered 
as a friend, respected for his ability, and confidently resorted to for 
his assistance, there, they have feared no malady and have suffered 
no loss.” 
Voila la difference! And this, as Mr. Wadlow with truth 
says, constitutes one special reason why the practice of horse 
medicine is acknovvledgedly eminently good, while that of sheep 
and cattle medicine is denounced as eminently bad. But such a 
state of things must not endure. There exists no earthly reason 
why one practice should not be as efficient and satisfactory as the 
other. Veterinary surgeons must be better qualified; farmers and 
graziers must think more of them, and not be so “ penny wise and 
pound foolish.” The veterinary art was instituted to advantage 
them in a peculiar degree, and they must be taught, by results , 
the superiorities it holds out to them over the absurd and per¬ 
nicious practices of cowleeches, and herdsmen, and shepherds, 
et hoc omne genus. 
Again has the season come round when over-fed, over-gorged 
animals are exhibited as Christmas fare, when mountains of animal 
obesity drag their unwieldiness about; but, after many years’ pur¬ 
suit of an object which had for its end the production of mere fat, 
a change has come over the spirit of the dream ; and those who, 
erewhile, sought but to attain obesity, have learnt that something 
more was requisite—that other things were wanted. 
To say that the fat cattle, exhibited as competitors for the 
prizes given by the Smithfield Club, are specimens of the famed 
breeds of England, is a farce; they are nothing more than indi- 
