A LETTER TO THE EDITOR. 
13 
a veterinary surgeon, and, as will every now and then happen, a few 
cases occurred in the system of “ luck’s all,” which were success¬ 
ful ; and for a time, who but he? Nothing was heard of but the 
number of horses he kept, and the wonders that he performed. 
During this time there was a practitioner steadily going on taking 
the cream. Mr. Quack sank lower and lower, and after a course 
of but a few years, I forget exactly how long, he was fain to flit to 
a distant town, there to pursue the same course, while the edu¬ 
cated practitioner holds his own quietly and unobtrusively. If I 
were to enumerate the instances which, during a long practice, 
I have myself encountered, the list would be a long one. Such 
things never, as a tyro, gave me a moment’s uneasiness, nor ought 
they to give any one who is conscious that he has paid that de¬ 
gree of attention to his art which will enable him to practise it, 
and will be resolute in carrying it out on strict principles of 
probity. 
It is this knowledge which has led me to be so urgent for the 
proper instruction of the rising generation: it does not prevent me 
from feeling and shewing respect where it is due, but it does in 
joining in a silly cry against those who, from circumstances, may not 
have the same advantages, though they mav be equally or even 
more worthy than myself. If any one has succeeded in obtaining 
a document miscalled a diploma without having paid the due de¬ 
gree of attention to the requisite course of study, he is worse by 
far than one who openly declares that he is a quack, or, what is the 
same thing, that he is in possession of certain valuable recipes— 
because the former is passing that off as sterling, while it is as 
worthless as a counterfeit. There is the still small voice of con¬ 
science, which, let a man try ever so much, can never be stifled; 
which will ever haunt him, if he attempt that for which he is not 
competent. 
It is the delusion in which so many have started as to their 
fitness to practise a difficult art, which has done so much injury to 
the profession, and been the means of ruin to themselves. How 
many young men of fair average talent have failed! how«jnany 
have at first been sought for and patronised, but after a year or 
two have found themselves deserted ! Has it never occurred to the 
reflecting to account for this ? Surely it has a cause: the public 
are not easily deceived for any length of time, especially in 
country districts, where all know more or less of each other’s 
affairs; and when they find that the quack can do as much as the 
other, and at a greatly diminished money charge, need we wonder 
at the result ] I, for one, do not. 
If the door by which the profession was to be entered was ren¬ 
dered more difficult than it is at present, if the expenses attending 
