536 
EDITORIAL. 
Ought not advantage to be taken of this freedom of our columns 
to place on record such interesting facts as are met with in daily 
practice, and each one of which becomes one of the stones which 
in their aggregation form the grand edifice of veterinary science 
which we are all interested in erecting ? Let us look at our 
American publications, and count how many out of the many 
hundred pages which are necessary to constitute one of our 
yearly volumes are occupied by “ Special Records of Cases,” 
and how many of these might be published if all were to contrib¬ 
ute who might do so. Suppose that out of the entire mass of 
our practicing friends each one should report one case (one only) 
annually, and who has not in a year, at least, some single cases 
of unusual or even of but ordinary interest worth describing ? 
How immense would be the amount of material in every branch 
of our profession which would be thus accumulated, and how 
greatly the American members of the veterinary profession might 
be benefitted ! Of course we can obtain and copy much informa¬ 
tion from the numerous journals published in Europe and re¬ 
ceived in this country, but is it not time for us to prove to the 
veterinarians on the other side of the Atlantic that there are 
among American veterinarians as good observers and as careful 
recorders of their observations as themselves ? 
The trouble with us is that we are not addicted to literary 
work. We watch our cases, we carefully observe the varying 
course of a disease or of an operation ; we feel satisfied that in 
the result our best efforts have been both taxed and rewarded, 
but there we stop. It is an error and a wrong which we are in¬ 
flicting upon ourselves and upon our profession. Records of 
cases, whether successful or not, are obligations due to our 
brother practitioners, and we should respect our obligations and 
fulfil the duty they impose as a matter of professional conscience 
as well as public and private interest. We do not believe that 
any of the veterinary.publications of this continent will decline 
their hearty co-operation in the performance of this obvious and 
imperative duty. 
