360 
THE VETERINARIAN, JUNE 1, 1854. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — C icero. 
The General Meeting of the Royal College of Veterinary 
Surgeons for 1854, held on the 1st of May last, for the first 
time in their new College (miscalled “Institute”), seems 
likely to stand on record remarkable for the paucity of the 
number of the members present. At the first commence- 
ment, such meetings were wont to amount to an approach to 
100 members assembled; even so late as the year 1850, we 
find the number recorded to have attended to have been 
“ between 60 and 70.” At the last meeting it appears they 
did not exceed half that number. What the cause or causes 
may have been of so signal a falling off we are hardly pre- 
pared to say. One reason we can conjecture, which is, 
simply, that of the public announcement of the meeting 
being, perhaps, confined to a single insertion in the Times,, 
and a like one in some other newspapers, in which the ad- 
vertisements may not happen to have met the eyes of many 
men of our profession, whose engagements in practice prove 
an impediment to their reading the papers daily. We must 
confess, for our own part, we have seen no .announcement of 
the meeting, though we usually see the daily papers ; albeit 
such notice is needless to us, since we always carry in our 
minds the memorable passage of the charter — “ the first 
Monday in the month of May.” 
Another hypothesis for the paucity of attendance we may 
imagine to have been operative on the occasion, is the 
circumstance, perhaps bruited about, of there being little or 
nothing “new” or ostensibly to do at the meeting — every- 
thing appearing to be proceeding so evenly and satisfactorily 
that nothing appeared to ask for alteration or interference. 
And although there was no doubt a caviller or two present, 
who would make a point of attending, still the meeting 
proved a tranquil one. 
In his opening address, the President, Mr. Goodwin, had 
nothing to which he need call the attention of members as 
