412 LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
perlv qualified shall be appointed for each county, at a stated salary, 
directly responsible only to the veterinary department of the Privy 
Council, from whom he shall receive his instructions, and who alone 
shall have the power of cancelling his appointment ; in short, a 
position similar to a medical officer of health. 
I must confess that I have little faith in the reform of our pro- 
fession by legislative enactments, or that they will ever bestow upon 
us exclusive privileges to protect us from the competition of quackery 
outside the profession of which many complain ; and even if they 
did, we should still have it practised by legalised members, for if we 
come to examine the matter closely we shall find that we have a 
natural attachment to quackery; it is therefore difficult of eradica- 
tion, because the principle of undoubting belief is in proportion to 
the subject of our confidence ; thus in many difficult cases we 
succeed simply through confidence, and fail in the attainment of 
easy ones simply because we despond. 
But we should never forget that the true elements of reform are 
not corporate but personal, and that if as a body we would be puri- 
fied we must adopt a high standard of individual character and 
conduct, and whatever delays may attend the introduction of legis- 
lative reform, there is a power entrusted to each of us of internal 
reformation, of a sound and healthy training of the moral and 
intellectual faculties — of diligence in the pursuit of science — of 
modesty in the self-estimation of attainments — of moderation in all 
desires for mere applause or emolument, of a refusal to stoop to 
actions selfish or degrading — of rightly estimating the holy luxury 
of acting on the golden precept of doing to others as you wish they 
should do to you, a power far more important than the best regu- 
lated act of parliament could confer upon us, and one which if we 
practised it in our individual and collective capacity, would raise us 
to such a height that quackery and its minions would shrink into 
pigmy insignificance. 
Let me, therefore, give you one word of advice with regard to 
these associations ; cherish them as the proper vehicle for the deve- 
lopment of these principles, as the means of bringing our thoughts as 
well as our bodies into communion, of engendering mutual feelings 
of respect and esteem among men who are travelling the same road 
of life together. 
In the exercise of our profession misunderstandings occasionally 
arise, and we feel ourselves aggrieved by the action of some profes- 
sional brother, but we should not fly the sight of him, and abstain 
from attending the meetings of the association on that account, as a 
little calm consideration of the facts will often be found sufficient 
to explain and exonerate. 
Now how is it that on many occasions we find so small an attend- 
ance at these meetings? let us in charity believe that it is in a 
great measure attributable to professional engagements, for we can 
scarcely believe that the important advantages to be derived from 
attending these meetings are still unappreciated by the members ; 
we want their presence as well as their names and subscriptions, and 
