A VOICE FROM A DURHAM COAL MINE. 
October 9, 1863. 
Gentlemen^ —Any one who may have perused the valu¬ 
able remarks ^vhicll appear from time to time in the leaders 
of the Veterinarian cannot fail to perceive the close manner 
in which you identify yourselves, with the common interest 
•of the veterinary community. Would that the members of 
the profession generally were actuated by this spirit more 
than they are^ and I should not have been prompted to for¬ 
ward such a censorious epistle as the one I am writing. 
That great efforts are being made by the teachers them¬ 
selves there is no question, and great results, I am happy to 
see, are being realised; yet there are points where ^^our 
shoulders are needed to the wheel of advancement,” to which 
I would call the attention of the profession generally. 
It has alwa 3 ^s been my practice, whenever professional 
duties or visits of pleasure take me from home, to call upon 
my brother ^Wets.and I need not enter into any descrip¬ 
tion of the amount of pleasure derived in these opportunities 
of stealing” some information. I use the word steal¬ 
ing,” because it somewhat explains a determination pre¬ 
viously formed, for obtaining experience even at his cost. 
But I candidly affirm that, like the Rogues of Paris, I suffer 
myself to be unconsciously fleeced in a similar manner by all 
who do me the favour to call with the same honorable inten¬ 
tion. 
To have secrets in the profession is at once a disgrace and 
signifies a plebeian characteV^ and tendency to qnachergP 
To be free and communicative to each other shows an eleva¬ 
tion of mind, which is a symptom of that liealth}" state you 
so wisely dun into our ears, viz., union.” 
But to proceed. In many of the opportunities afforded 
me of conversing with my fellows, I have noticed with regret 
the great amount of indifference which exists as to what 
is absolutely going on in the veterinary world; and to my 
constant queiy—‘‘Do you take a copy'of the Veterinarian 
or the Veterinary Review I have been astonished at the 
frequency of the instances where a negative reply is given. 
It is not long since, in pursuing the investigation a little 
closer, I asked “ Why ?” urging the lamentable fact that 
“ not to know what was actually going in the professional 
communit}"—not to be watching, as it were, the progress of 
the science, and its tributaries—was like being alone, and 
