LONDON PROFESSORS AND EDINBURGH GRADUATES. 371 
professional character, for which I entertain the greatest 
respect and admiration, I cannot but remark that you have 
allowed your columns to be the medium of circulating a 
gratuitous insult upon the graduates of the Edinburgh Col- 
lege. Having allowed Professor Spooner to express his 
opinion on one side of the subject, T think you cannot in 
fairness deny me the same privilege without being amenable 
to the charge of undue partiality. But, Sir, I rely upon your 
attachment to the sacred principles of justice, and wishing 
you long life and happiness, 
I beg to subscribe myself. 
Your obedient servant, 
John Barker, V. S. 
Stokesley ; June 9, 1853. 
Sir, — I confess I was somewhat surprised on perusing the 
leading articles in the ‘Veterinarian 5 for the current 
month (June). I was very happy indeed to learn that the 
ee General Meeting of the Members of the Veterinary Profession 
for the year 1853,” had passed off, “ if not with any incident 
calling for special notice, at least with as much satisfaction 
and eclat as ordinarily accompanies such reunions.” 
After noticing painful and unpleasant agitations, happily 
passed away, you proceed to say, “ However, we will not 
look back upon such scenes as these, but cast our eye 
forward through the vista of futurity, and endeavour to realise , 
in imagination, those ‘bright 5 anticipations which the ‘ab- 
stract of the proceedings 5 of the College for the sessional 
year now past, in picture at least, presents to us. 
In your third paragraph, you say, “ So far, ‘ all’s w’ell ! 5 at 
least all’s hopeful ; and yet we would fain ask here, as a 
question which might be put by any inquirer, even by a 
stranger, how comes it that in an institution doing, to appear- 
ance, so tolerably well, so few out of its thousand members 
are to be seen at the general meeting ? 55 
There seems to me, Sir, a degree of reservation in this 
language which, coming from such a quarter, appears some- 
what remarkable. 
Were we not doubly assured by the cheering expressions 
“ all’s well “ all’s hopeful “ bright anticipations “ points 
arranged nearly as harmonious as a ‘ marriage bell,’ ” we 
might almost be tempted to think that we could discern an 
amount of tergiversation, sufficient to cause a naturally 
desponding mind to think that there was something “ rotten 
in the state of Denmark.” I am persuaded that the gradual 
