APTITUDE FOR VETERINARY PRACTICE. 
505 
born in a manger,” so to speak, have an innate love for ani¬ 
mals, be brought up along with them, study their life and 
habits, get as perfect a knowledge as possible of them in 
health ; for it is only when we have this knowledge that we 
can obseive the slightest deviation from the normal standard. 
When a young man enters college, armed with this prelim¬ 
inary , but most valuable knowledge, the work of the curricu¬ 
lum is more attractive and interesting, and when he graduates, 
the theoretical information of which he is possessed is applied 
moie practically; lie goes about his patients more like a 
horseman than an old woman, which latter is very prejudicial 
to a practitioner, in the eyes of horsemen, and his treatment 
is usually more rational, which necessarily is common sense 
treatment. 
On the other hand, we often have young men drifting into 
our ranks whose only incentive has been, probably, that some 
one whom they knew had made a success of it as a veterinar¬ 
ian, foi getting the fact that the successful man may have had 
the many primary advantages before mentioned. Of course 
there are many exceptions, but it very frequently happens 
that veterinarians, whose knowledge of animals is obtained 
absolutely from the use of the text-book, prove failures in 
every-day practice, and consequently cast disparagement on 
their profession. 
Cases of lameness often crop up in practice which tax to 
the utmost a veterinarian’s—shall we say ingenuity?—at all 
events, his powers of observation. In this connection, a short 
description of a case which came under our notice may not 
prove uninteresting. 
Some five years ago we were visiting in Northampton¬ 
shire, England, right in the midst of one of the best fox-hunt¬ 
ing centers there, and within easy riding distance of four of 
the finest packs of hounds. The animal to which our atten¬ 
tion was called was a beautiful dark bay thoroughbred lady’s 
huntress, probably seven or eight years old, and worth at 
least five hundred dollars. The groom informed us that the 
mare went short in the off-hind limb, which was most notice¬ 
able when leaving the stable under the saddle, and also at 
