380 PRESENT STATE OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
his want painfully. This curriculum may need modification 
at the hands of those better capable of judging than I am. 
But it is the adoption of some such plan that I would ad¬ 
vocate. 
“ Knowledge is as food, and needs no less 
Her temp’rance, over appetite to know 
In measure what the mind may well contain, 
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns 
Wisdom to folly.” 
But while I urge such a measure as this, I am equally 
anxious to avoid any injustice being done to those whose 
intention it might be to become students before they could 
sufficiently acquire the attainments above suggested. On the 
contrary, a sudden change I think would be injudicious, and 
would, therefore, recommend it not to become a bye-law for 
some four or five years, and even then it might be brought 
round gradually, requiring a less amount of knowledge the 
first few years before the whole course be expected. Against 
all this there will be many, I know, ready to exclaim, “ Of 
what use can these acquirements be in the sick stable ?” I 
say, te caeteris paribus,” much—both inside and outside. I 
often think there is an impression with some that an edu¬ 
cated and a practical veterinary surgeon cannot be one and 
the same; but who can doubt the combination in many men 
whom you and I could name ? The slang of the stable that 
some veterinary surgeons adopt, to show their acquaintance 
therewith, in a measure accounts for this. To the educated 
these terms are revolting. Coarse expressions are as ill- 
suited to the refined mind as coarse food to the delicate 
appetite. 
Now, if any should think that I am detracting one whit 
from the necessity of practical qualifications, they are mis¬ 
taken. In no profession do I conceive their loss is more se¬ 
verely felt than in ours. It is not a day or two, or a year or 
two, that makes us acquainted with the manners and cus¬ 
toms of horses, much less their diseases. But I will not go 
so far as some do, who say the only men who make veterinary 
surgeons are those accustomed to horses from their cradle. 
It, however, behoves those in authority to see that opportu¬ 
nities are afforded for all to acquire a due amount of practical 
experience. The connexion of the shoeing-forge with the 
practice of the veterinary surgeon, has done anything but 
to raise his position ; still, how it is to be universally done 
away with I am at a loss to say, being in itself often lucra¬ 
tive, and the means of husbanding a practice, and often 
sufficient to retain it. For my own part, I could wish to 
