296 
EDITORIAL. 
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I 
I 
the amputation as to make it a question of the veterinarian’s ! 
losing" the glittering gold that flows from such practices. 'These j 
considerations do not justify an association of scientific gentle- | 
men in making an official declaration that a practice that is | 
acknowledged by all men—professional and lay—to be brutal^ ; 
is “ a necessary operation.” He who has sworn to the Oath of 
Hippocrates, to be merciful and just and considerate to the dumb 
creatures over whose health and happiness he is to minister and 
encourage, could not conscientiously vote in favor of such an 
unreasonable proposition. Probably no veterinarian with ex¬ 
perience would claim that the simple processes of amputation, 
cauterization, and cicatrization are fraught with such a magni¬ 
tude of suffering, nor that the complications are so frequent, nor 
the sequellse so serious, as to place it beyond the pale of profes¬ 
sional procedure ; but the consequences are of a different kind ; 
they entail suffering by reason of the absence of the horse’s- 
natural defense against torturing insects. As long as the horse 
remains sound and satisfactory, his sufferings may not be gieat,, 
for his master will probably provide him with a fly-net when at 
labor and a sheet when at rest and in the stable. But when,, 
from disability or other cause, he is no longer his owner’s pride, 
becoming the subject of barter, finding his way into the second¬ 
hand dealer’s stable and finally into the shafts of the fish-ped¬ 
dler’s wagon, he may then yearn for the release that death brings, 
as did the hero of the late lamented Prof. Walley’s pathetic 
poem, “ The Horse’s Troublous Life.” It is not necessary here 
to depict his agonizing efforts to defend himself against the 
pests that Nature intended his beautiful tail should shield him 
from ; they are too well known to us. That resolution, if it 
exists in reality, is a blot upon the name of the profession of 
veterinary medicine, and should be expunged as quickly and as 
vigorously as possible. 
. . • • • * • 
Since the foregoing was in type, we have received the Bng- 
lish professional periodicals, in which are printed in full the 
proceedings of the special meeting of the Lancashire Associa- 
