LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 231 
not only to elevate the veterinary profession scientifically, but also 
the social standing of the members themselves. To confirm what I 
now assert, I have only to refer you to the pages of our Journal, 
where you will find published essays emanating from societies like 
our own, which reflect the highest credit upon the writers, and which, 
I doubt not, have afforded valuable information, not only to ourselves, 
but also to absent though equally earnest members, whose sojourn 
is in distant lands. 
Socially, I have a very high opinion of associations like this, and 
there can be no doubt their influence is beneficially felt in more 
ways than one, and if to that influence none of the scientific advances 
have taken place which I have alluded to, I still maintain that a 
material and lasting benefit to the members has been accomplished, 
by the fact of their becoming personally and intimately known to 
each other. Those little weaknesses in human nature — doubt, sus- 
picion, jealousy, and the impression that your advance upwards can 
only be obtained by the falling, lowering, or disparagement of your 
fellow-members — these feelings, I say, gentlemen, are dispelled, and 
in their stead those of respect, trust, and confidence in each other 
are established, and the firm manly feeling is produced and cemented 
that the upward road to prosperity is much easier and pleasanter to 
attain and keep possession of when accompanied and supported by 
our fellow-members and friends. 
We have two other reasons for asserting that our profession is 
certainly not retrograding, namely, the institution of a preliminary 
examination prior to admission within the walls of our colleges, and 
the adoption of a practical examination prior to the candidate obtain- 
ing his diploma. In regard to the former, I think, in the first place, 
too much praise cannot be accorded to our professors for so promptly 
carrying out this test of the pupils’ qualifications in an educationary 
point of view, and there can be no two opinions about the fact 
that our ranks, gentlemen, will and must be vastly benefited and 
improved by introducing a class of members who, it is reasonable 
to suppose, will be in every way better prepared to comprehend and 
store up that scientific and professional knowledge which will be 
there imparted to them, than would otherwise be the case if the 
college doors were, as heretofore, open to all comers irrespective of 
any education the candidates so applying may have previously ob- 
tained. 
What is it that makes the young veterinarian feel so diffident 
and anxious w r hen he places himself in the harness of practice — 
even should he leave college with all the honours, application 
and attentive study can confer upon him — but the want of that 
practical knowledge which it has been an impossibility for him to 
obtain, unless he has had the good fortune to have acquired it 
prior to his college studies, by the daily practical lessons he had 
received during a sojourn of three or more years with a member 
of our profession ? I am of those who conscientiously believe 
w T e have many such in our ranks. This being so, gentlemen, let 
us hail the introduction of this new test of the candidate’s prae- 
