EDITORIAL. 
323 
“THE DOCTOR BE D-D.” 
“The average patient when nearly well of a .sickness will take a 
bottle of Rotgut’s Relief or a box of Poopendike’s Pills, and to these he 
will give all the glory, and ‘the doctor be d-d .’—Medical World. 
The experienced veterinarian is fully capable of comprehending the 
ennui which actuated the writing of the above paragraph.— L. A. M. 
We have copied the above item from this month’s install¬ 
ment of the “ Department of Surgery ’! for the purpose of giv¬ 
ing it more prominence, and of discussing some of the phases 
of the inferences contained in it. The first section of the para¬ 
graph, credited to the Medical World , suggests a familiar expe¬ 
rience with medical and veterinary practitioners, and is simply 
a terse way of stating the termination of very many cases, the 
treatment of which has consumed considerable time. The 
second portion of the paragraph, signed “ E. A. M.,” is in the 
nature of an endorsement of the truth of the Medical World's 
observation from a veterinary standpoint, and is from the pen 
of that well-known surgeon and writer, Prof. L. A. Merillat, of 
Chicago. We desire to see whether the number of such termi¬ 
nations cannot be reduced, and to inquire if they are not in 
some instances directly traceable to the veterinarian. Of course, 
we have no intention of conveying the impression that they can 
always be avoided, but are there not many cases where more 
diplomacy on the part of the practitioner would save his client 
to him and he receive just credit for his intelligent and well- 
directed curative efforts ? It is disheartening to a conscientious 
practitioner to have a client enter his sanctum holding in his 
hand a bill that had been sent to him some months previously 
for attendance upon a lame horse, which had received a very 
effective application of the actual cautery, and ask if half the 
price charged isn’t sufficient, “ particularly as you didn’t cure 
my horse. He was just as bad when you got through as he was 
before you begun ; so a friend of mine told me to rub him with 
hot vinegar, and he’s come all right.” That sounds familiar, 
doesn’t it? Here’s another : You are called to a violent case of 
gastric indigestion, the animal eructating gas and having dys- 
pnoeic symptoms. You administer antiferments and absorb- 
