1 Ocr., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 397 
The animal should be allowed flour-gruel to drink. Starch and wheaten 
‘flour make excellent gruels, and are of service in most cases of diarrhea. The 
horse should be kept as quiet as possible and warmly clothed. 
To horses predisposed to scour, water should be given frequently and in 
reduced quantities, and in winter the chill should be taken off by mixing it 
with a little warm water. Perhaps the best plan is to leave water always before 
-such horses, because when so supplied they drink less than when watered at 
intervals. A diminished quantity of water taken into the system by lessening 
the secretions of the intestines decreases the tendency to purgation. Horses 
disposed to scour should be stinted of their water before going to work. Some 
horses will scour, unless a little hay is given to them in the morning before they 
:are watered. 
Treatment of Diarrhea in the Young-—Whatever be the cause, it is well 
-to commence the treatment with a laxative. Four tablespoonfuls of castor 
-oil and 14 drachms of chlorodyne is a suitable mixture for such purposes. 
When weakness is marked, a little alcoholic stimulant may be administered 
_—for instance, four tablespoontfuls of brandy beaten with four eges, say every 
three hours. 
Pepsin, five to ten grains, together with twenty minims of diluted hydro- 
chloric acid, given twice daily, is recommended as a very useful mixture for scour 
in young foals that are suckling. 
In addition to the foregoing treatment, the dam may be given a dose of 
daxative medicine. Me 
COST OF BECOMING A VET. 
A young fellow wrote to the editor of an English journal lately asking him 
ito let him know the cost of becoming a veterinary surgeon. ‘This was the 
reply :—When I told a certain eminent professor that 1 had a son I was going 
to make a vet. of, he replied, “ Why not drown him? ” However, it is not of the 
prospects of the vet. profession you ask, but how to enter it. The first thing 
essential is a liberal education, as a preliminary test or matriculation examina- 
tion is required as proof of the student’s capacity for the assimilation of know- 
ledge. This debars many a good man from entering, but is a cruel kindness in 
preventing youths with no ability from embarking on a career in which they 
cannot hope to succeed. It is the equivalent. of that prescribed by the General 
Medical Council, and in Scotland the certificate of the Educational Institute is 
accepted (arrangements are being made for that institution to hold similar 
examinations in England and Ireland). Latin and at least one European 
language are among the subjects. After taking this, the first fence, success- 
fully, you have to spend a minimum of four years at college—a fall at either of 
the succeeding obstacles delays the pass examination. The entrance fee of 80 
guineas needs to be supplemented with £20 worth of books, microscope, instru- 
ments, &c., &e. (there is a lot of “&e, &e.”), and the cost of maintenance in 
London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Dublin during the years named. A Scot, 
accustomed to severe self-denial, may do it for £300, but the average student 
needs something like £500 from first to last if he is to have a decent time of it. 
If you write to the Dean at either of the colleges, you will have forwarded to 
you a book of rules, giving you the fullest details, but rather calculated to 
frighten beginners, and therefore not such a fetching advertisement as the 
compilers intended it to be. The profession is not likely to be overcrowded, as 
the rush is past and the red light visible. Other means of traction than that of 
the horse are frightening parents unduly, and those who enter the profession 
now will probably not regret it. For myself, I would rather practice as a vet. 
than earn double the income in any other calling. 
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