593 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
common art in the estimation of the public, and to the 
enrichment of its stores of recorded facts. 
Were we called upon to suggest the course that should be 
adopted to lay a sure foundation for these reunions , we would 
say, let the first step be taken by our metropolitan brethren : 
and if it be asked who shall bring forward the first subject 
for discussion, we venture to reply the President for the year 
of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. 
In the metropolitan association this should doubtless be 
his privilege, and we have no fear, were an attempt 
forthwith made to establish such societies, of many other 
members of the profession being found who would be ready 
to follow so noble an example. In town, too, it is probably 
the more requisite that a paper be introduced, as the mem- 
bers are in the almost daily habit of seeing each other, and 
communications on professional matters of more or less 
general interest are freely canvassed. Whereas in the 
country the same facilities do not exist, and therefore one 
coming from a distant part, and bringing with him some 
new or uncommon specimen of disease, would thus furnish 
matter for discussion, and obviate the necessity of reading a 
paper. 
Different individuals seem to turn over different leaves 
in the great volume of nature, each reading a special 
lesson of her operations; hence, from the comparison of 
these experiences, much valuable knowledge may be added 
to the general as well as the individual stock of information. 
Nor would we endanger the success of these associations by 
stringently confining the discussion to set rules at the 
beginning ; for we are not apprehensive of any disorder 
arising among men who are brought together to further the 
ends of science, and presided over by a fit and proper chair- 
man. In the debates, the good sense of each speaker will 
always prevail and take the ascendancy. 
In advocating the formation of these societies we are quite 
aware that we have to encounter many objectors. One man 
thinks it a pity to make any innovations, and another is 
opposed altogether to a change. By and by we may have 
