397 
UNQUALIFIED VETERINARY PRACTITIONERS. 
To the Editor of “ The Veterinarian .” 
Dear Sir,— The injury sustained from unqualified practitioners 
in veterinary medicine has frequently been adverted to in the 
columns of The VETERINARIAN ; but the means of remedying the 
evil are, unfortunately, not very apparent. 
The Veterinarian being principally to be found in the hands 
of the profession only, the remarks made in it do not reach the 
eyes of the parties most interested, viz., the owners of animals in 
need of medical or surgical assistance. 
These remarks have been made in consequence of one of my 
patrons having published a letter in The Doncaster Gazette , a 
copy of which I forward you. I would recommend the members 
of the profession to obtain the publication, in the local newspapers, 
of all cases of maltreatment by unqualified practitioners. This, I 
think, would have a tendency to discourage empiricism and 
quackery, to the saving of many valuable animals, and to obtain 
for the duly qualified veterinary surgeon that degree of public 
estimation and support which he has justly merited by his talents, 
study, or experience. 
I remain, Sir, yours respectfully, 
Robert Nicholson, M.R.C.V.S. 
Womersley, near Pontefract, May 14, 1849. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DONCASTER GAZETTE. 
Sir,—As it is good at all times, for the protection of the public, 
to expose imposition and reward merit, and knowing no better 
medium of doing so than through your influential journal, I beg to 
submit the following flagrant case to your notice, where the incapa¬ 
city of a pseudo-veterinarian nearly cost me the life of a very 
valuable mare. 
Within the last month this mare was suddenly taken ill, and by 
her repeated violent struggles seriously injured herself in other 
respects. I immediately sent for Mr. Nicholson, veterinary sur¬ 
geon, Womersley, near Pontefract, who unfortunately had just 
gone to examine a horse fifty miles from home. 1 then sent for 
another so-called veterinary surgeon, who, with a seeming decided 
knowledge of the case, immediately pronounced it hopeless, saying 
that she had got the “ mad staggers,” and recommending the 
“ knacker” to be sent for ins! an ter, to put the poor beast out of its 
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