8 THE TREATMENT AND DISEASES OF CATTLE. 
upon the profession, in respect to their want of knowledge in the 
treatment of the diseases of sheep and cattle, would be removed. 
It has for some time been a confirmed determination with the 
owners of horses to submit them to the opinion and care of a quali¬ 
fied veterinary surgeon in every case of infirmity or ill health; the 
more valuable the animal, the more eagerly is scientific aid sought 
for: they are not trusted to the grooms and coachmen employed 
upon the premises (although these are men, generally speaking, of 
much more acute observation and knowledge than herdsmen and 
shepherds). Why is this 1 Because valuable horses are generally 
the property of men of liberal minds and endowments, or of men 
who have become enlightened by continual intercourse with the 
world. These men, knowing that education, observation, and ex¬ 
perience, have done much for themselves in their path in life, can 
fearlessly trust their valuable property to the veterinary surgeon; 
knowing that, after his years of study and attention to such sub¬ 
jects, he must be more competent to aid and relieve than the igno¬ 
rant blacksmith and farrier, or empiric, formerly employed. Thus, 
being called in to treat all diseases in every state, we have had 
opportunities afforded us of practically arriving at the best me¬ 
thods of treating, arresting, and curing the diseases incidental to 
the animal. 
Now, I would ask those farmers and cattle-owners who are 
raising this outcry of our ignorance, Are we regarded in this 
manner respecting their cattle ] Are we applied to as readily 1 
Are we consulted as openly] Are our opinions and directions as 
to treatment as strictly adhered to ? No! when their cattle are at¬ 
tacked, they employ the cowleech, who generally administers some 
favourite nostrum, as applicable for that as for any other of the 
many diseases to which it is invariably applied; and thus the 
disease goes on, each day becoming more virulent and attacking 
other animals. Then, when the wisdom of the owner and the inge¬ 
nuity of the cowleech have been exhausted, and the disease has 
become aggravated to its utmost extent, the unfortunate veterinary 
surgeon is called in, though, unless he can bring supernatural means 
to his aid, he can indeed do nothing; and then he is blamed for mal¬ 
practice and want of knowledge. 
I write this with a thorough knowledge of its truth. All my re¬ 
lations, both by consanguinity and marriage, are farmers—all more 
or less owners or breeders of cattle—all opulent—and, with 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 provid¬ 
ing the clean shirt and decent habiliments of the respectable pro- 
