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THE PROPOSED CENTRAL VETERINARY 
MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
By G. Fleming, Royal Engineers. 
The Editors of the Veterinarian , and those who are exert- 
ing themselves in the attempt to form a Central Veterinary 
Society, deserve the best thanks and most cordial support of 
the profession, more particularly of the members who reside 
in London and its vicinity, for their earnest and persistent 
efforts to achieve this object. In such hands and with such 
management success cannot be doubtful; and it is only with 
the intention of making this success, if possible, more com- 
plete, beneficial, and durable, that I now venture to appeal, in 
the most earnest manner, to those who hesitate to give this 
movement their countenance, and to induce them to reflect 
on the urgent need, there is for the proposed organization. 
Viewing what has been done in this direction in the provinces 
of the United Kingdom, and the great boon conferred, not 
only on the veterinary profession, but on continental nations, 
by the labours of foreign societies of this character, esta- 
blished many years before they were thought of in this 
country, it has always appeared a mystery to me why such a 
project should not have been successfully carried out in 
London long ago. Nothing could be conjured up to explain 
the mystery, except the existence of a most discreditable in- 
difference to the interests and progress of veterinary medi- 
cine. This indifference, commencing with the Government 
of the country, seems to have affected, more or less, almost 
every graduate as soon as he received his diploma, and the 
evil, far from stopping there, has cast its malignant influence 
over the mind of the public; so that, instead of being recog- 
nised as a scientific body whose deliberations should be lis- 
tened to with respect, and whose claims to estimation and 
encouragement ought not to be ignored, we occupy a position, 
it may be truly said, but little advanced beyond the unscien- 
tific and unenlightened status of farrier. 
The proposed society, if conducted as we hope and expect 
it will be, and if its members are animated by a deep sense of 
professional duty, and that zeal which is the mainspring of 
all beneficent enterprise, should prove of great service in pro- 
moting veterinary science, and bringing its aims and aspira- 
tions more prominently before the public than anything that 
has yet been attempted by us. For it must be remembered, 
