518 
VETERINARY OBSTETRICS. 
\ 
“plain unvarnished tale” of the proceedings. In my capacity 
of blacksmith and farrier, I have been repeatedly called upon 
in obstetric cases of difficulty and danger, to act, when profes¬ 
sional assistance could not be obtained ; and I feel it therefore 
to be of the highest importance, that all following my calling 
should have a sound practical knowledge of the safest and 
best-established operative procedure in everything that relates 
to the management of preternatural presentations, which they 
may at a moment’s notice be summoned to superintend in 
such valuable animals as the mare and cow. 
Mr. Gamgee indeed says, “On the whole subject of vete¬ 
rinary obstetrics, I should say that recent discussions afford 
the best proof that this branch of veterinary science, if possi¬ 
ble more than others, has been neglected in Great Britain.” 
The publication of the case, therefore, by me has the merit, 
if it possesses no other, of instituting that professional dis¬ 
cussion ; for there can be no breach of charity in alleging, so 
far as Mr. Gamgee was concerned, that his oration, like the 
mare itself, would never have been delivered, nor would the 
practice he adopted, as recorded by himself in his own pe¬ 
culiar maze of unmeaning words and irrelevant matter, have 
reduced him to his proper level as a mere experimenter and 
a tyro in his profession. He roundly taxes Mr. Balfour and 
others, for their successful operations in similar cases, as 
“adopting a very old plan,” and abuses them for “ only 
trusting to the ignorance of the uninformed for praise.” 
But Mr. Balfour’s practice has received the approval of the 
profession. It seems to be the safest and most judicious one, 
and such as I feel myself warranted in following; for it can 
be performed by any one possessed of ordinary tact, nerve, 
and capability of operating, and, fortunately, requires but few 
instruments, which with the requisite assistance can always 
be readily procured. But let me ask, in what quarter can he 
seek for or expect to obtain “praise,” who, in parading his 
knowledge of German, by referring to such authors as 
Gunther and Baumeister, passes over in silence the labours 
of those who have contributed so much to diffuse through 
Great Britain sound scientific information in the same field 
of inquiry and practical knowledge in the obstetric depart¬ 
ment? and especially of one, a Professor in the Royal Vete¬ 
rinary College, and a member of theR.C.Y.S., with which body 
he has so ardently sought to be associated, whose illustrated 
lecture on the same subject, published several years ago in 
the Journal of ilie Royal Agricultural Society of England , had 
it not been perversely ignored by Mr. Gamgee, would have 
furnished him with invaluable instructions, and saved him 
from his subsequent blundering. 
