LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 411 
True, this resolution has met and still meets with a certain 
amount of opposition from certain quarters, whence many would not 
have expected it, seeing that bye-law 29 distinctly states that 
students shall undergo an examination as to their knowledge of the 
practical duties of the profession. 
This bye-law has been in existence for many years, and was well 
known to the teachers lit the various schools. The Council by 
putting it in force are only doing their duty, and ought to be 
supported by the general body of the profession, and not pooh- 
poohed, and attempts made to render them ridiculous. 
Time was when opposition from this quarter would have been 
formidable ; even yet it can scarcely be despised. But the days of 
the opponents of veterinary progress are numbered. The obstruc- 
tives of reform are nearly bowled out ; they have had a long 
innings, but the ball of reform has been set a rolling, and let them 
beware how they attempt to stop its motion. 
I have many times been asked by veterinary surgeons why we 
do not at these associations agitate for a veterinary bill to stop 
quackery, and protect the rights of the veterinary surgeon. For 
an answer, I may refer them to one of the leaders in this month’s 
Veterinarian , where the writer distinctly states that our province 
is science not politics, and that no two things on earth are so hope- 
lessly irreconcilable as science and politics. Now without either 
admitting or denying the truth of this proposition, I think there 
are times when our associations ought to exert themselves and 
make their power felt; as, for instance, in the passing of the Con- 
tagious Diseases Act last session. Surely the Government never 
intended when they passed that act to rob a body of men to whom 
Her Majesty had granted a charter of incorporation of that to which 
they were the just and lawful heirs, and the only competent parties 
to fulfil the duties. Yet such has been the operation of the Act. 
We find all over the country that policemen have been appointed 
inspectors, and are expected without any previous training what- 
ever, to diagnose correctly such diseases as glanders and farcy in 
the horse ; pleuro-pneumonia and rinderpest in cattle ; variola 
ovina in sheep ; and measles in swine. And it would not at all 
surprise me to find those wiseacres of magistrates who have ap- 
pointed those men, when they get too old for their additional duties 
of vagrant running and thief catching, to recommend them as 
skilled in the diseases of horses and cattle, and help them to 
commence practice as veterinary surgeons. 
Now I do think it is within the province of these associations to 
notice such matters as these, and earnestly unite in a solemn 
protest against this state of affairs, and endeavour to have them 
placed on a more satisfactory basis, the emolument arising from 
these inspectorships, may not in many cases be large and the duties 
considerable, but whether they are large or small they are ours by 
right, and we ought not to rest satisfied until we obtain them ; and 
if the ravages of contagious disease are ever to be curbed, the act 
must be amended, so that one, two, or three veterinary surgeons pro- 
