144 
A. LIAUTARI). 
a procedure ? Where does the blame belong for this ? 1 do 
not wish, gentlemen, to tire you with many other points con¬ 
nected with this subject, and yet there are others which I 
cannot very well pass over, and which I think tend greatly to 
lower the profession in public estimation, to an equal degree. 
The first one is the gratuitous advice that is often given 
through the sporting press. Not the agricultural nor the 
medical periodicals, no, but by the correspondents of the 
sporting papers. These writers seem to have the grace to 
be conscious of wrong-doing, for you seldom see their full 
name appended to their screeds; they are rightly ashamed 
of their work, though not ashamed to receive the emoluments 
of their labors, for they gain customers by it. Right or wrong, 
and knowing how worthless the opinion he has put in black 
and white is, in the majority of cases he does not dare to identify 
himself with his article, or to be recognized as the author. 
He may, perhaps, put his initial to his communication, but of 
what use is this? He is already known too well, and he may 
try to hide his unprofessional conduct under a coat by means: 
of the anonymous device. And yet, whether only a simple 
practitioner or one whose name is well known, or even a 
member of some veterinary faculty, such an action will 
always operate as a drag and an impediment to the progress 
of true veterinary science, and a weight upon efforts for its 
elevation. 
Shall I say anything to you of the veterinarian who, for 
reasons which I leave you to judge, goes clandestinely, under 
the cover of the night, to perform an operation which, for fear 
of the law, he dared not make in the daytime? Not coura¬ 
geous enough to recognize or refute the justification of the 
operation, but never willing to refuse to “ sell his goods,” bad! 
or good as they may be, he goes under the shadow of dark¬ 
ness, without regard to the responsibility which he owes to 
his patients, or the confidence placed in him by his employer, 
for his own self, and above all for the profession which he 
abuses. 
Shall I say anything of him who protects by his knowl¬ 
edge and skill an ignorant quack who has tried to rob one 
