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W. H. DALRYMPLE. 
APTITUDE FOR VETERINARY PRACTICE. 
By W. H. Dalkymple, M.R.C.V.S., Baton Rouge, La. 
To the minds of many students of veterinary medicine 
and surgery, the zenith of perfect happiness and fortune is 
realized on the receipt of the longed-for, and in most instances, 
well-merited sheet of parchment, the “diploma,” enabling them 
to practice the art and science; when “stewing” and 
“ cramming ” at text-books and lectures are past, and all that 
remains to ensure success is to sit down behind an elaborate 
sign-board, receive clients, and make entries. It is just at 
this particular period, however, in the experience of most 
veterinarians, that troublous times commence. Cases come 
under their notice that do not “ fit in ” exactly as they would 
desire thev should with the “text,” over which they have 
spent so many hours, and burnt so much of the midnight oil, 
and it is at this, the outset of their professional career, when 
practice becomes a reality, and their future depends entirely 
upon their own individual efforts, and in a great measure, on 
the success they have at the beginning, that they are called 
upon to draw largely on their store of the most valuable of all 
senses, “common sense.” 
Perhaps there are no cases met with in practice that afford 
more discouragement to a young practitioner, and baffle him 
more, than cases of lameness—and in fact this is not entirely 
confined to the beginner, because there are practitioners of 
many years standing who often have grave doubts in their 
own minds as to the correctness of their diagnosis in very 
ordinary cases. We have known such men, men of large 
ability, whose theoretical knowledge was very extensive, but 
whose failure lay in their total lack of general knowledge of 
animals in health, their habits, &c. Such failing we cannot, 
however, attribute to want of common sense, further than in 
not finding out earlier that they were more suited to some 
other work in life. 
It seems to us, that to attain to any degree of success 
whatever as a veterinary practitioner, a man should “ be 
