Plot twists that WON'T happen

cthia wrote:Nimitz getting his mojo...err voice back!

Who says, the Dr's. Harrington could come up with a new type of regen.

saber964 wrote:

cthia wrote:Nimitz getting his mojo...err voice back!

Who says, the Dr's. Harrington could come up with a new type of regen.

I'd really like him to get his voice back, but perhaps the fact that he lost it is why he and Honor's bond has become so strong. A little of the, 'you lose a sense and others take over.'

Can you get him an appointment?

Do they have regen for tree cats yet? I don't know that it's ever been mentioned just how regen works, so I don't know if it would even translate to another species...

NortonIDaughter wrote:Do they have regen for tree cats yet? I don't know that it's ever been mentioned just how regen works, so I don't know if it would even translate to another species...

The problem is that what was destroyed was a bundle of nervous tissue. We've seen time and again that nerves are still tricky things to deal with, and HH's veterinarians still have a comparatively limited knowledge of what those nervous bundles do.

Xenophysicians, not veterinarians.

'Cats are People, not Cattle.

roseandheather wrote:

NortonIDaughter wrote:Do they have regen for tree cats yet? I don't know that it's ever been mentioned just how regen works, so I don't know if it would even translate to another species...

The problem is that what was destroyed was a bundle of nervous tissue. We've seen time and again that nerves are still tricky things to deal with, and HH's veterinarians still have a comparatively limited knowledge of what those nervous bundles do.

emeye wrote:Xenophysicians, not veterinarians.

'Cats are People, not Cattle.

Actually the proper word is xenoveterinarian, and I'm sorry, but you're wrong.

Veterinary medicine is, quite specifically, medicine practiced upon non-human living beings. Whether or not the beings in question happen to be sentient is beside the point. The Stephanie Harrington books bear this out - her father, Richard, is a xenoveterinarian, not a human doctor, and he is considered the ultimate medical authority regarding treecats on Sphinx.

According to my dictionary, veterinary medicine is medicine practiced on animals.

Animals, not "non-human beings."

Of course, lacking proven sentients other than humans, terms "animal" and "non-human being" are equivalent.

On the other hand, if non-human sentients were present, I would not expect them to approve being equated to animals, simply because they happen to be non-human. Do you?

roseandheather wrote:

emeye wrote:Xenophysicians, not veterinarians.

'Cats are People, not Cattle.

Actually the proper word is xenoveterinarian, and I'm sorry, but you're wrong.

Veterinary medicine is, quite specifically, medicine practiced upon non-human living beings. Whether or not the beings in question happen to be sentient is beside the point. The Stephanie Harrington books bear this out - her father, Richard, is a xenoveterinarian, not a human doctor, and he is considered the ultimate medical authority regarding treecats on Sphinx.

emeye wrote:According to my dictionary, veterinary medicine is medicine practiced on animals.

Animals, not "non-human beings."

Of course, lacking proven sentients other than humans, terms "animal" and "non-human being" are equivalent.

On the other hand, if non-human sentients were present, I would not expect them to approve being equated to animals, simply because they happen to be non-human. Do you?

Please. Feel free to continue to "educate" me, an actual, certified, degree-holding veterinary technician/nurse, as to the scope of my profession. By all means, continue.

Treecats are treated by xenoveterinarians, not physicians, because their biology is by and large far more similar to that of felinoid/mustelid mammals than it is to human biology.

In addition, physicians are, by definition, solely qualified to treat human beings except in the case of extreme emergency, as veterinarians today are solely qualified to treat non-human species except in cases of extreme emergency. The scope of human medical practice is solely limited to homo sapiens sapiens. Anything falling outside that purview is the province of a veterinarian when dealing with members of the kingdom "animalia" and its similar xenospecies.

Do I make myself clear?

roseandheather wrote:Please. Feel free to continue to "educate" me, an actual, certified, degree-holding veterinary technician/nurse, as to the scope of my profession. By all means, continue.

Treecats are treated by xenoveterinarians, not physicians, because their biology is by and large far more similar to that of felinoid/mustelid mammals than it is to human biology.

In addition, physicians are, by definition, solely qualified to treat human beings except in the case of extreme emergency, as veterinarians today are solely qualified to treat non-human species except in cases of extreme emergency. The scope of human medical practice is solely limited to homo sapiens sapiens. Anything falling outside that purview is the province of a veterinarian when dealing with members of the kingdom "animalia" and its similar xenospecies.

Do I make myself clear?

And probably as important, treecats don't seem to need a lot of medical support. There's not enough work to support a dedicated treecat-only medical practice.

So whoever works on treecats is also going to have to be trained to work on other species. And since a treecat's biology should be a lot closer to other sphinxian live than to anything of earth origin, it makes sense that there would be more comonality of knowledge and training to work on treecats and as a xeno-vet on other Sphinxian lifeforms, than on treecats and on humans.

And, before treecats were able to sign, you also had the issue that despite being sentient the doctors or vets couldn't effectively ask them whats wrong, or what hurts, against more in common with the issues vets face than the ones most physicians do.


If you were dealing with a lot of sentient aliens and their medical needs, then maybe a dedicated xenophysician makes sense; there's enough work to allow specialization in that one sentient species. Or if you were in a situation with lots of different sentients then it might make sense to limit your specialization to them in order to keep up to date and training in handling each of their biological / species specific medical issues. But neither of those hold in the Honorverse.

From “A Beautiful Friendship” in More than Honor:
"Richard Harrington held degrees in both Terran and xeno-veterinary medicine."

He was a vet treating local animals of Terran, Sphinx (possibly other Manticore system planet fauna) Myerdahall and presumably those animals from yet other planets which have been regularly imported to some human occupied worlds as useful.

Just what the Honorverse term is for treatment of Treecats (and other sentient species) we don’t seem to have been told yet. Not germane to the story line (yet).

One or more of the current governments of Earth might have a term they use for anybody they intend to examine or treat any sentient extra-terrestrial individuals that have the misfortune to find themselves needing or being subject to “treatment or investigation” here.