675 
TO “ SHOEING SMITHS.” 
a terrible wrench to kick at nothing;” but I do feel for the dignity 
of our professional organ. I do feel that truth cannot be advanced 
by such things. It may produce a laugh in the thoughtless and 
unreflecting; but to those who have any feeling of propriety it can 
only raise a smile of pity or feeling of regret. 
It appears that I have incurred the writer’s wrath because I 
wrote against a series of opinions, partly false and partly true. I 
condemned them for the first, and exposed what was claimed im¬ 
properly as new discoveries in the other. They may have been, and 
probably were, new to the writer; but to me they were so old that I 
cannot recollect the origin of them; at all events, they were imbibed 
from a variety of sources—reflection, perhaps, putting them to¬ 
gether in a tangible form. Many of these opinions were imbibed in 
early life from my father, whose practical knowledge of these mat¬ 
ters is probably equalled by few; from the intercourse of some of 
the best, the thinking, men of my own day, some now no more, 
and others still able and ready to give their own opinions and 
views ; from the writings of old authors, and of the best of the new. 
From these sources, sobered down by long experience, many fail¬ 
ures in the practical working of the theories formed from time to 
time, working out my ideas from the chaos natural to the posses¬ 
sion of so much material, I have endeavoured to put together the 
results of my analysis for the benefit of those who may not have 
been placed in circumstances so favourable as myself. 
I have no “ discoveries' to announce, no “crotchet” to advocate ; 
resting perfectly contented to see principles carried out and science 
evinced, instead of wild theory and egotistical dogma. There was 
a time when I should have been ready to enter the field as a “ dis¬ 
coverer ;” but, alas for my vanity! I found so much had been writ¬ 
ten and said on the subject, that my new knowledge was only an 
“ oft told tale.” I do not mean to say that there is nothing to be 
discovered or made more clear; but it cannot be done by placing a 
part in a position contrary to Nature, or viewing it under circum¬ 
stances different from its usual or natural condition. 
I have not hesitated to denounce error or to expose presumption; 
it would be too much to expect that I should allow any one to as¬ 
sume that he had taught me that which I had long known; and 
further, knew that others were as well acquainted with as myself. 
It has been more than hinted to me, that I ought to meet experi¬ 
ments by experiments. Child’s play ! As if every observation, 
fair!}' carried out, was not an experiment. If I were to give, seri¬ 
atim, the experiments I have made, no one volume of The Vete¬ 
rinarian would contain them. I can look back with pleasure and 
say, that I have seen enough from the inevitable results of acci¬ 
dents and disease to render it unnecessary for me to put any animal 
