REPORT. 
271 
9. Whether such Persons (if any) have ever studied at either of 
the Colleges of London or Edinburgh, or have been brought 
up from their Youth in the Practice of Farriery ? 
That seven hundred and fifty of these circulars have been issued ; 
that is, to all those whose addresses have been positively known. 
That twenty-one have been returned from the Post Office, from 
the parties addressed not being known, or as being dead. 
That four hundred and twenty-five have been duly returned, 
carefully filled up. 
That three hundred and four have not been taken any notice of. 
That every application made for circulars has been rigidly at- 
tended to. 
That from those circulars that have been returned a mass of 
statistical matter of the greatest value has been attained ; and, 
from the returns having been made from all parts of the United 
Kingdom, the following results are shewn : — 
That the certified members are but thinly spread over the 
kingdom. 
That the number of those who assume the title of Veterinary 
Surgeon exceeds the number of certified members. 
That under the various denominations of horse-doctors, horse- 
surgeons, farriers, cowleeches, cattle -doctors, castrators, spayers 
and gelders, charmers, spell-workers, butty -colliers, water-doctors, 
and various other local appellations, those who gain a livelihood 
by the practice of the art far exceed the two other classes com- 
bined ; and this, too, without including chemists and druggists 
who advertise to prescribe and make up nostrums, or proprietors 
and vendors of quack medicines ; or butchers, coachmen, grooms, 
jockeys, ostlers, carters, colt-breakers, bailiffs, herdsmen, shep- 
herds, and others, who pretend to “ doctor” the stock under their 
immediate care. 
That those who style themselves Veterinary Surgeons, and those 
under the various denominations beforementioned, taken together, 
the numbers may be safely estimated at somewhere about six thou- 
sand, while the certificated members do not, as far as the Commit- 
tee can judge, exceed fifteen hundred. 
That thus there are, at the lowest estimate, seven thousand five 
hundred who practise the veterinary art as a livelihood. 
That, in those districts where cattle are numerous, the number 
of the lowest class of the unqualified particularly abound. 
That it also further appears that the cattle practice is the strong 
hold and chief maintenance of the lowest and most ignorant class 
of the untaught. 
That those who assume the style of Veterinary Surgeon appear 
