542 
TESTIMONIAL TO PROFESSOR MORTON. 
access to the premises while I am treating the animals. They are the 
main cattle pathologists at the present time in different parts of the 
country. They go about the farms, walk round the stock, and say, 
“There is one animal I will send this drink to; here is another re¬ 
quiring this or that.” They charge merely for the medicines they sup¬ 
ply, so that the expense is very trifling, and the farmer has a sort of 
satisfaction in reflecting that there is some one about the stock who knows 
something of the matter. I am constantly asked if I have any objection 
to these men remaining, and I always say, “ Certainly not; if they do not 
interfere with my patients, let them remain.” I know that any objection 
on my part would have no effect. They are connected with the farm; 
they are of the nature of a piece of agricultural machinery, and cannot 
be removed by any violent proceedings on our part. But I may state to 
you one fact, that since I have had the honour of holding my appoint¬ 
ment, and, I may venture to say, since the time there has been a pro¬ 
fessor at the institution (I believe the brother of our friend Mr. Kobin- 
son held the appointment before I did), no student passing out of the 
Agricultural College is at all likely to employ a cow-doctor or farrier 
upon his farm. I am constantly asked by the old students, “ What are we to 
do in such a case; can you assist us ? There is no veterinary surgeon 
within so many miles, and we cannot possibly employ a cow-leech.” 
While these students are better acquainted with the anatomy of the ani¬ 
mals, with physiology, and the principles of pathology, than the men 
practising in the country, it is utterly impossible that they can so violate 
their conscientious feelings as to have recourse to the assistance of those 
who they must know are inferior in knowledge of the subject to them¬ 
selves. So far from the appointment, then, interfering with your pur¬ 
suits, I say let us have such appointments all over the country. The 
more farmers become enlightened upon the subject, you may depend 
upon it, the more requisite the veterinary profession will be to them. It 
is a great satisfaction to know that the principal agricultural societies in 
England have appointed veterinary inspectors, and thus recognised the 
importance of the profession. I wish I could say so much of the rest of 
stock-owners in the country, and of the patrons of the stud in the hunting- 
field or the stable. I could wish that the stud-groom was replaced by the 
veterinary surgeon. As far as the agricultural societies are concerned, 
they have paid us a high compliment, and 1 trust the result will be that 
our profession will be considerably advanced. There is one other point 
I am desirous of bringing before you; that is, in reference to patients at 
the hospitals. It is utterly impossible that anything like a complete sys¬ 
tem of cattle pathology can be thoroughly understood and properly brought 
before the profession, or the pupils of the profession, without a sufficient 
number of patients being supplied to the public hospitals. I have heard 
it over and over again remarked at the St. Pancras institution, “ We see 
no cattle practice.” The answer has been, “ What can you expect? We 
are away from the agricultural community, in the middle of London, and 
how shall we obtain those patients ?” Gentlemen, we are in an agricul¬ 
tural community—in the centre of one. Some of the principal breeders 
of short-horns in the country are friends of the institution. W e say to them, 
“ Send your animals in, and we will charge you only for the keep.” Yet 
they do not send them in. We then say, “Send them, and we will take them 
for nothing;” but they still decline. You may answer, “ They don’t think 
you can attend to them.” Gentlemen, they have no objection to pay me my 
fee for visits to their own premises, but they will not send the animals to 
be treated for nothing, in the same way, by the same person. The fact is 
farmers do not like to send their cattle out of their own sheds, and owners of 
