346 
W. H. DALRYMPLE. 
We, therefore, feel warranted in recording the operation as 
one of distinct therapeutic value and to express the hope that 
other veterinarians will apply the treatment and record their 
observations, with such suggestions as may develop in respect 
to etiology and technique. 
THE VETERINARIAN AS A NATURALIST. 
By W. H. Daerympee, M. R. C. V. S., Baton Rouge, La. 
A Paper presented before the Louisiana Society of Naturalists at New Orleans, April 
7, 1899. 
It affords me a great deal of pleasure to appear before you 
this evening in the role of essayist. I must confess, however, 
that when asked by our worthy Secretary to prepare a paper, I 
had some difficulty in deciding upon a subject apropos to the 
society and to the occasion. 
It is true, the veterinarian, or might I rather designate him 
the student of comparative medicine, is brought daily in con¬ 
tact with Nature in many of her phases, and is required to have 
a sort of conglomerate knowledge concerning her many intrica¬ 
cies ; still, when brought face to face with the fact that a paper 
was expected of me—which I realized would be most acceptable 
to a society of this nature if along some definite line of work— 
I was almost about to give up in despair. 
The field open to the veterinarian, in the domain of the 
naturalist, is indeed a very wide and varied one, but to attain to 
any degree of success along any of the many branches of the 
work, he must become a specialist. Many such men are to be 
found to-day in the ranks of the veterinary profession, some of 
whom have reached a high degree of eminence ; but when we 
consider the large majority of veterinarians who have not the 
opportunity nor the time to specialize, but who have to keep 
adding to their store of general knowledge of all subjects per¬ 
taining to their professional work, for the purpose of satisfying 
the demands of a public who expect them to be quite an fait in 
each and every branch of it, the difficulty, or might I rather sav, 
