592 ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
ported by the majority of the profession in making any alterations 
in the Charter having a tendency to benefit the veterinary col- 
leges and the profession ; but such a plan as that recently proposed, 
if carried into effect, would have rendered the Charter perfectly 
useless. One would suppose that such an absurd scheme was not 
devised by a person of the nineteenth century ; it appears more 
like an antediluvian project, — the idea of establishing a veterinary 
board is preposterous. Do the professors of the veterinary colleges 
think that the profession would so far succumb to them as to per- 
mit the acts of the Council — their elected representatives — to be 
superseded or confirmed by a veterinary board ? If so, they are 
monstrously deceived. Do they consider themselves in' possession 
of superior veterinary knowledge to others of the profession 1 If 
they do, in that they are wading in error ; and why then wish 
to make the whole profession subservient to them 1 or are they 
actuated by interested motives 1 If the latter, I blush for them. 
If they are anxious to be members of the Council, the same course 
is open to them in common with others of the profession, viz. 
election. Why are they desirous of taking an active part at the 
examinations of the pupils I They may rest satisfied on that 
point, that the present examiners will do justice to them and the 
pupils as long as the latter are efficiently taught. I see no reason- 
able grounds whatever for making these innovations in the Charter; 
therefore I regret exceedingly to be under the necessity of record- 
ing my disapprobation, with that of many old labourers in the 
same field, of the conduct lately pursued by the Professors of the 
London and Edinburgh Veterinary Colleges towards the Council, 
and, I may add, the profession at large. 
The letter from Mr. Henderson, in this month’s VETERINARIAN, 
contains a gloomy fact for country practitioners. Not only are the 
diseases and treatment of domesticated animals taught at the 
Hoddesdon Agricultural Institution, but at the Cirencester Agri- 
cultural College, too. Teaching chemistry to agricultural pupils, 
so far as relates to manures and the soil, is founded in wisdom ; 
but to teach them the diseases and treatment of cattle, is trenching 
too much on our profession, and will, I am fearful, blight our best 
cherished hopes ; viz. that of a more general treatment of horned 
