264 
ADVICE TO VETERINARY SURGEONS PROCEEDING 
TO INDIA. 
To the Editor of u The Veterinarian 
4k 
Sir,— Allow me, through you, to give a very valuable hint 
to veterinary surgeons who are written to from firms in India 
(i. e. livery stables) to come out to take the veterinary charge, 
and the veterinary profits,of an establishment. 
Let no professional man, however small his practice may be 
in England, think of accepting the proposal of any firm without 
he be made a partner from the very day of his arrival in India. 
The veterinary surgeon is the best man of the establishment, 
and he is the partner who brings most money into the establish¬ 
ment. The public like a professional man with an establishment, 
either as a partner or as one doing the work; and if there be not 
one, they send their sick and lame horses where there is pro¬ 
fessional skill; therefore I say, let the professional man stand for 
his rights. 
I am, in haste, 
A Royal College V.S., 
in the E.I.C.’s Service. 
Madras, February 1852. 
SURGERY IN THE OLDEN TIMES IN SCOTLAND. 
To the Editor of 11 The Veterinarian.” 
Sir,—N ot having heard from your “Sporting Surgeon” lately, 
I presume he has by this time altered his opinion of the mean 
practices he supposed our profession led us into ; and, though he 
may think his own so much superior, I am not sure if that im¬ 
provement has been effected at the rate, and arrived at the profi¬ 
ciency, ours has in so short a time. 
We are told, barbers were the first surgeons. The brass 
plate they hung out on the end of a pole, and the red ribbon 
twisted round it as their sign, were used in old times as em¬ 
blematic of the bandage and measure used in bleeding their 
patients. I send you the following as a kind of curiosity in 
the old broad Scotch way of the original Seal of Cause, by the 
Magistrates and Council of Edinburgh, in favour of the Surgeons 
and Barbers there, July 1st, 1505. 
J. Horsburgh. 
