376 RUPTURE OF THE STOMACH, ROWELS, &C. 
and stable management, as well as something of credit to the 
numerous and well qualified body of veterinary surgeons with 
which the country is now supplied. 1 know for certain that 
essays on the subject were handed in by some; but whether 
the judges of these essays were entirely ignorant of the subject 
they were appointed to examine into, or whether these judges 
were veterinary surgeons in towns, whose particular interest it 
was to make their employers believe that none but they had 
any knowledge of the diseases of horses, equally certain it is 
that a prize was given which, had it been awarded three hun¬ 
dred years ago, might have done them credit with the then 
ignorant; but, now, to inform the members of the Highland So¬ 
ciety and any others interested, “ that prevention was better 
than cure ”—“ that if a horse was taken ill, to give him goose 
grease ,” and “ if he was not cured,” “ to send for a veterinary 
surgeon,” was, I say, what could never have been expected 
from such a society in this age of improvement. 
It is not my intention at present to enter into the several 
diseases, or their causes, affecting horses used in agriculture; 
but to take one that is not often brought under notice, at least one 
which I do not remember to have seen explained at any lecture, 
or other source of information, viz. RUPTURE OF THE STOMACH, 
BOWELS, &c.; and I must admit, with the Yorkshire farmer 
who gained the Highland Society’s prize before referred to— 
that in these cases “ prevention is better than cure.” 
Riding homewards one night lately in company with one of 
our eminent medical practitioners here (Dr. Thomson), in talk¬ 
ing of several diseases at present affecting horses and cattle, he 
(Dr. T.) said, that surely we veterinary surgeons must be very 
much at a loss in treating diseases—that we must in many cases 
treat them merely by chance, since we must do something to 
please our employers—that we laboured under great disad¬ 
vantage compared with surgeons, our patients not being able 
to tell us where they were affected. In answer, I told him I 
thought, on the contrary, we had rather a great advantage. We, 
or most of us, had attended the same medical classes (while at 
college) that he had, and those relating to horses and cattle 
besides. That it was true, we could not ask our patients to 
take a deep inspiration, press their sides, or make them cough, 
asking them if they felt pain there, and telling them, you knew 
that was the place, for which reason it became our duty more 
particularly to pay attention to symptoms. We must note 
down in our mind the different symptoms produced by pneu¬ 
monia, enteritis, nephritis, spasmodic colic, flatulent colic, &c. ; 
and we must attend most particularly to the pulse; in doing all 
which we had another advantage over the human practitioner. 
