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ANACREONTIC-THE BOTTLE.

THE night is ours, why should we fear?
The night is ours, let's banish sorrow;
The ruby cup is foaming here-

Drink, boys, for care may come to-morrow.
Drink-drink deep,

Lull care to sleep,

The bottle-this bottle be my pillow.

Time!-surly loon, checks not his flight:

Who cares for Time? why should we fear him?
His glass be ours, my brave boys, to-night-
Should the Saint preach, we will not hear him.
Drink-drink deep,
Lull Time to sleep,

This bottle-this bottle be my pillow.

When Love was born, the rosy child

With Nectar-Nectar, they surprised him :

His May-dew lip exultant smiled,

For Bacchus! Bacchus had baptiz'd him!
Drink-drink deep,

Love shall not sleep,

The bottle-the bottle be my pillow.

"Life is like a stream," the wise men say,
Aye, 'tis a stream of white wine and red,
And, by your leave, it shan't run away,
Ere Care is plunged in heels over head.
Drink—drink deep,
Lull Care to sleep,

The bottle--the bottle be my pillow.

Fly not so fast, ye jealous hours,

Why with your senseless scythes attack us?

Are we not now, Immortal Powers,

The jovial, spiritual Sons of Bacchus ?

Then drink while ye may,

Time would, could he stay

And make this bottle-this bottle his pillow.

H. C. D.

WANT OF A VETERINARY SURGEON AT NEWMARKET.

66

Sterling Science will eventually triumph, whatever may be its present state of discouragement and debasement.”

SIR,

IN my Review of the Racing Season in your February Number, while noticing the accident which occurred to Zany at Goodwood, I took occasion to regret

the want of an established Veterinary Professor at Newmarketa place of all others where the skill and experience of a really clever man might be employed

with the greatest advantage. The very recent calamity which has fallen upon John Scott's stable in the North*, where so many valuable animals and so much property have been struck off at 66 one fell swoop," incites us to look at the subject with redoubled interest, as applied to Newmarket, where, if such a disease (of the nature of an epidemic) should once make its appearance, the consequences cannot be foreseen. The common "distemper" (as it is termed), which is the bane of young race horses, every Spring fastens itself on some one unfortunate stable, to the destruction of the hopes of many Derby and Oaks favorites, and usually does not quit the devoted premises without having, either in a milder or severer form, visited all the inmates. With what dismay, then, must the visitation of a destructive and malignant disease (such as it has just shewn itself in the North) be contemplated in its advances towards Newmarket! where, from the immense number of young horses alone at this season of the year, and the contiguity of the different stables to each other, the destruction of lives of so many valuable animals, even if (as certainly is "devoutly to be wished") the disease shew itself in a less severe form than in the recent instance it has done, must be immense. In all inflammatory cases, as the merest tyro must be aware, the only chance of preserving life is by prompt and decisive means made use of on the very first exhibition of the symptoms. Will any one, then, be bold enough to assert, that the training groom, who at New

market, where secrecy and mystification are the chief requisites, may be considered competent to hide the effects of a slight cold, or other trifling casualty, to prevent the odds sinking in the market till his master "has got his money off," can by possibility be possessed of the requisites of veterinary knowledge sufficient to determine on the symptoms, and the necessary measures required to be adopted in such rapid and all-destroying cases?

Some apology may be required from a non-professional individual like myself undertaking this subject; but I am free to confess I have done so solely with the view of inciting some person more competent to attend to the matter. I have, however, one advantage, which a professional man would not perhaps be considered to possess--that of disinterestedness; my only motive being to endeavour to do away the prejudice which exists among owners of race-horses against employing a regularly educated and experienced resident Veterinary Surgeon. I shall, however, avail myself of some remarks on this subject by a gentleman at the head of the Veterinary Profession, which have been published in the pages of the Veterinarian, a work which I have always read with the greatest pleasure, but which, perhaps, is rather too professional and technical for general readers; and therefore their artiticles on the subject, though extremely germane to the matter," and well worthy of perusal by every lover of the race-horse, have not been so extensively read as they deserve.

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I allude to the account noticed in your last of the death of Mr. Petre's Beaufort and several young stock of Mr. Walker's, by inflammation. VOL. V.-SECOND SERIES.-No. 25.

G

50

THE SPORTING MAGAZINE.

While on the subject of Zany at Goodwood, I mentioned a few of the reasons why Noblemen and Gentlemen had so long refused to trust themselves and their horses in the hands of a veterinary professor; the principal, no doubt, being their want of knowledge of the rapid strides and advance of the art towards perfection which it has been making in the hands of individuals during the last quarter of a century; and that, therefore, being ignorant of this, their attention never having been called towards the subject, they still look upon the ancien regime of farriers as in full force, and that, in effect, the "bell-hanging" practitioner of days of yore still exists under the more modern and dignified cognomen of "veterinary surgeon." Nor is it to be wondered at that such notions should still prevail, considering the wretched and degrading regulations which permit a monopoly of a thing'yclept-par excellence! -the Veterinary College, to foist upon the public shoals of ignoramuses, under the shelter of its Diploma (forsooth!), as qualified to kill or cure the only test of whose fitness for the occupation consists in having attended the cut-and-dried lectures of the soidisant Professors for a few months, and the finale of handing over some twenty guineas of "filthy lucre" to the same parties! It is notorious that it is to individual exertion only that the advanced state of the veterinary art at this day is owing, and that there rank among the members of the profession-men of as high and independent feelings and attainments as any liberal art or science can boast of-gentlemen, whose study it would be, if patronised

by owners of race-horses, to do everything in their power for the advantage of the animals placed in their charge, and at the same time maintain with fidelity and honour the trust reposed in them.

I am not so sanguine as to imagine that prejudice which has existed so long, and which custom and habit have contributed to strengthen, can at once be swept away but I do really think the time will come, and shortly too, when the disgrace will be done away, which permits a foreigner to say that in the first country in the world for its breed of horses--and at the head-quarters too, where the major part of a thousand horses are constantly in training, &c.-no veterinary surgeon has been ever patronised or supported.

I shall now proceed to transcribe some of the passages to which I have alluded from the pages of the Veterinarian; and I shall offer no apology for so doing, because, emanating as the remarks do from the pen of so skilful and eminent à man as Mr. Youatt, they must have far greater force than anything I can say on the subject. It will be seen, that, with all the leaning which one would naturally suppose a man like Mr. Youatt must have towards his profession, he is not unmindful of the prejudices which must exist against admitting an "untried" practitioner into such mysterious and forbidden ground as the precincts of a Newmarket training stable.

Mr. Youatt begins by observing that he had heard it remarked, that "it was not a little discreditable to us (the profession), and deserved our very serious consideration, that no vete

rinary surgeon had been able to obtain a living at Newmarket." The fact" is an undeniable one, and we are sorry for it."

"There are always a great number of valuable horses at Newmarket, and at certain times of the year all the pride of the English racing breed is collected there. The horses are not only valuable in themselves, but their owners have frequently immense sums staked on them. One would think it, of all places in the world, the most favorable for him to settle who knew how to preserve the horse in full health, and most speedily and effectually to cure his diseases; yet seven or eight young men have gone, one after the other, from the Veterinary College to Newmarket, and have left it in a year or two in despair and disgust. An old farrier* residing there does considerable business; and Mr. Bowles of Cambridge, a very excellent practitioner, is frequently consulted; but a veterinary surgeon cannot live at Newmarket.

"This is not a little discreditable to us, and it does deserve our serious consideration.

"There are, however, some peculiarities about Newmarket, whatever might be our first impression, that are really unfavorable to the success of the veterinary practitioner. In the first place, it is the metropolis of the groom's empire; it is where he has for many a year ruled with absolute sway, and where he would be most of all jealous of a rival, and a rival whose superiority he feels and dreads. In many stables the master is com

paratively powerless; in the training stable he is a mere cipher : the tyranny of the groom, founded, like tyranny everywhere, on ignorance and indolence, is despotic. Some masters submit to it reluctantly, but all do submit to it; and the management of the race-horse in health, and in sickness too, is the peculiar province of the training groom. This person is much improved of late; but still there is in all these stables a great deal, which, in point of sound practice, and now and then of honesty too, he knows will not bear the light: therefore he is exceedingly cautious how he admits in the stable the man who will detect at a glance the errors of which he himself is beginning to be conscious, although he obstinately clings to them. So far is this carried-and that not merely at Newmarket-that we know two Cavalry regiments, into the stables of the Commanding Officer of which the veterinary surgeon is not admitted, and the Colonel does not dare admit him, because he would incur the high displeasure of his master, the groom.

"The whole management of the training stable is a perfect mystery. Each groom has his own peculiar mode of training and of doctoring, which he guards from the inspection and knowledge of others with the most scrupulous care. What takes place in one stable is not supposed to be known to, and is concealed as carefully as possible from, the inmates of another. The veterinary surgeon, if he is suffered to enter there, will develop, and may divulge the

*Mr. Youatt, I should suppose, alludes to Mr. Barrow, an old and very greatly respected farrier in the town, and the plater (par excellence) of nearly all the race, horses which run there.

is most perplexingly situated : he must shew himself master of his profession; and yet he must weigh well every word, lest it should be supposed to have reference to some particular horse, and indicate his opinion of that horse, and disarrange the books of the owner or of the groom.

mystery; he may reveal a secret and the management of the horse supposed to be well worth know--that will not be perverted. He ing; or he may throw discredit on a system which has been the foundation of the trainer's reputation and profit: and veterinary surgeons have not always been discreet they have forgotten the obligation which they should have felt, if they did not formally take it-to see and hear, but say nothing. The secrets of the prison house have sometimes escaped, to the annoyance or discredit of the groom, or the loss of the owner.

"In such an establishment the veterinary surgeon will always be most unwillingly sent for; because it may make a most serious and ruinous change in the odds if it be suspected that there is anything amiss. The veterinary surgeon, once called in, must be aware of the real state of the stable; and there are plenty of knowing ones about such a place who will artfully obtain some information from him, or some hint at least, which they may turn to their own account and the injury of the owner of the horse. He must have more discretion than falls to the lot of most young men, who will not sometimes incautiously commit himself here; and the fear that he may incautiously divulge that which should be as secret as the grave, will close against him the door of many of these establishments. He can scarcely say a word on his most favorite topic-the structure, the powers,

"A gentleman once called on a friend of ours, and asked him whether he would go a considerable distance to operate on a turf horse, and pledge himself that he would make no attempt to discover to whom the horse belonged, or mention it to any one if he should accidentally discover it, or, for a certain time, speak to any one of the direction or object of his journey. He was taken to a little country town, at the best inn in which his quarters were established; thence he had to walk a mile to a lonely farm to see his patient: he was always met there by one or two gentlemen, who introduced themselves by some common name, and frequently they returned and dined with him at his inn ; but he never knew who they were, and the people of the inn did not suspect his business. When the patient was convalescent, he was handsomely remunerated, and dismissed-shrewdly guessing inIdeed with whom he had had to do, but refraining from making the slightest inquiry, and to the present hour not assured that his suspicions were well founded*.

* "Two or three years ago, a horse, that afterwards won one of the great Stakes at Epsom, was somewhat amiss, and the writer of this article was requested to attend him, which he did daily for a week, but never at the owner's stables, and never twice at the same place; generally in some unfrequented road, and in very different directions, and in such a manner that the meeting should seem to be perfectly accidental-the consequence of which was, that the fact of his not being quite right was never generally known, or even suspected."

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