474 
JOHN J. REPP. 
is something that can in later life be pointed to with pride as a 
monument to industry and painstaking care. 
Seventh .—If a case record is kept as it ought to be there 
will always be at hand, in convenient and reliable form, ma¬ 
terial to be utilized in reporting cases. And this brings me to 
the second, and perhaps the more important part of my subject. 
The cases reported should be those which are somewhat out 
of the regular routine. There should be something about them 
which is unique and which teaches something new. Yet we 
should not be too critical in this respect, for, in order to dis¬ 
cover a rule or principle, numbers of observations of a similar 
nature are required, hence we need not refrain from reporting a 
condition because some one else has reported it before. Writers 
judge of the frequency of occurrence of a given condition by 
the number of cases found recorded in literature. They say a 
condition is rare, if they find it infrequently reported. It may 
be that in the aggregate the condition is frequent, but observa¬ 
tions to this effect have not been put on record. Conditions 
that are recorded as rare should by all means be reported. Even 
if a case seems quite trivial and of but little importance to the 
observer, he should not on this account refrain from putting it 
on record. A report which may be a matter of but little con¬ 
cern to the one who writes it may be the tenderest and sweetest 
morsel to the author who is earnestly endeavoring to fill up his 
outline on some branch of veterinary medicine. It is the little 
things that give magnificence to science when viewed as a fin¬ 
ished product. 
Briefly the benefits which may be obtained by reporting 
cases to our journals of veterinary medicine, and to veterinary 
medical societies for publication in the report of their proceed¬ 
ings are : 
First .—If an intelligent report of a case is made, it serves to 
introduce the writer in a favorable manner to those who read 
the article, and to bring him prominently before the profession. 
He will in this way acquire that standing among professional 
men that all good veterinarians deserve. 
