330 
ADDRESS TO THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
but to have made any attempt at expressing opinions on that 
occasion would only have made the meeting more tumultuous, 
and have taken up the time of men who came from long distances, 
not to hear the misplaced effusions of self-conceit and the displav 
of violence and interruption towards those who attempted to check 
personality, but to turn the business into its proper channel. 
To that meeting I, in common with others, went, prepared to 
enter into statements and hear opinions on matters of importance 
to the welfare of the general body; but, alas! I might have re- 
mained away, for any opportunity that offered. Hour upon hour 
was frittered away by those who ought, by the simple laws of 
propriety and courtesy, to have been silent, or, at best, have con- 
fined themselves to comments upon matters legitimately belonging 
to the business of the day ; and it was not till the late hour of five 
o’clock that the election of the members of the Council could be 
proceeded with, when, in spite of the desperate efforts made to 
produce a very different result, the most desirable parties were 
brought in by an overwhelming majority, and this without any 
connivance or attempt at control. 
The manner in which an attempt at opposition was made was 
most extraordinary — at variance with the rules of courtesy and of 
order ; only violence, clamour, and self-laudation ; a determination 
to drown by clamour any speaker but themselves, and to throw on 
one side the real business of the day. Such alone was the course 
pursued. 
To comment on such proceedings I cannot trust myself ; disgust 
and indignation prevail too strongly. How can we wonder at the 
low estimation in which we are held as a body by the higher 
classes of the community, when such conduct is shewn by those 
who have assumed to themselves to be the heads of our profession I 
I say, assumed ; for by no other right do they hold the position. 
They are the heads of their classes in the schools, just as a school- 
master is head of his scholars ; but who ever thinks of calling or 
considering the latter as the heads of the people 1 And their repu- 
tation is greater or less in accordance with the position which 
their scholars are enabled to occupy in after-life — not, mark! what 
they may be as scholars : just so is the real position regulated of 
any teacher or professor. 
What have we, as men, to do with the private affairs or inter- 
nal management of a school 1 If it is well regulated, and produces 
hereafter men of worth and knowledge, we support it ; if otherwise, 
we alter, re-model, or cease to uphold it. The power being given 
to remedy existing evils, we exercise it, regardless of what may be 
the peculiar opinions of any one party concerned. Such is the 
rule of society, and to such all must submit ; and if they will not 
