420 
F. S. BILLINGS. 
A SHORT CONTRIBUTION TO MEDICINAL DEON¬ 
TOLOGY. ' ; 
By F. S. Billings. 
I he translation from District Veterinary Surgeon Schmidt, of 
Prussia, which I had the pleasure of offering to our readers and the 
public, emphasizes a fact which is worthy of attention. Those who are 
acquainted with continental veterinary literature know that it is being 
constantly enriched by such statistical facts, by men who are busy in 
the daily rounds of their practice. there is nothing really wonderful 
in the article in question. Yet we may go over in review English vet¬ 
erinary literature from year’s end to year’s end, and we find no such 
contributions. \ et they boast, and people in America are inclined to 
boast, of their wonderfully practical education. Where the practical 
point is, we cannot see. Another, even a man who never saw the in¬ 
side of a school, or dissected the sexual organs of an animal, might 
and can, by practice, perform the operations as well as the best edu- 
cated practitioner. He performs the operation and goes away satisfied, 
thinking he has done his duty. In this he is followed by many a prac¬ 
titioner, not only of our, but the human profession. This constitutes 
the much boasted practicality. He may or may not have served his 
patron faithfully; the future can alone decide that. If fever and 
other complications intervene, the empiric who has seen the inside of 
the school may be able to serve his patron better than the empiric who 
has learned only by experience—may be able, I say ! Neither serve 
the community as they should, and the former is a disgrace to his pro¬ 
fession and a tiaitor to his professional duties. It is this statistical 
studying and reporting of cases, this bending all to serve our own pur¬ 
poses and our duty to the people, as exemplified in the article in ques¬ 
tion, which distinguishes the scientific practitioner from the empiric 
practitioner. The latter is practical to himself, that is, he earns his 
bread and butter ; the former is practical throughout, he serves himself 
even better than the other, for he is true to his duties ; he serves his 
patron in doing as he requests ; he serves his profession by contribut¬ 
ing to statistics of eminent value * he serves his country by showing 
the value of operations which may have assumed a false appreciation 
with the people, or in rendering more clear and systematic the nature 
of any malady. 
