VETERINARY EXAMINATIONS. 
285 
Before this body some twenty-four students appeared, and 
some twenty were dignified by the receipt of documents with 
high-sounding names, but which, for any practical purpose, are 
utterly valueless. 
How much better would it have appeared, if those gentlemen 
who are members of the medical profession had taken the trouble 
to inquire how far they were justified in interfering or setting 
themselves up as infringers of the laws, rights, and privileges of a 
corporate body with which they have no connexion! What would 
they say, were any of the members of the veterinary body corporate 
to take part in the manufacture of physicians or surgeons ? Would 
Drs. Lizars, Handyside, or Burt, submit to such an attempt with 
quietude? — would they tolerate such a proceeding? Let them ask 
their own consciences this question, and the answer is an indignant 
No ! Then, why do they so act towards us ? Let them rest 
assured that they have cast a stigma on their names which will 
not readily be forgotten. As for those who profess to be members 
of my own profession, 1 blush for them ; and men who can so act 
are beneath criticism. 
But what, in the name of all that is just, have the Highland So- 
ciety or Mr. Burn Murdoch to do with the veterinary profession ? 
What has given them the power of making, or assisting to make, 
veterinary surgeons? By what right do they fly in the face of 
Her Majesty’s Acts ! By what qualification can they judge of 
either the capabilities of the teachers, or of the capacity of the 
students? To answer, to define these queries, would be beyond 
the capacity of a Solon — for none of them have a shadow of an 
existence. It is mere assumption, arising from a desire for med- 
dling, and playing the part of patron. 
The same game has been tried hard for in London, and mani- 
fold have been the journey ings and correspondence to get up a 
Board ; numerous their disappointments, ceaseless their trouble. 
I have letters before me from those who have been applied to 
and refused. The English body of veterinary surgeons are not 
to be tampered with. There may be, and doubtless there will 
be, found some who are so lost as to be led astray; but no man 
of repute will be found amongst them. Let us wait until such 
parties make themselves known, and see how they will like 
exposure ; for, rest assured, they will obtain it, and to their cost, 
too. 
A Board is stated to be appointed to meet on Thursday, the 
27th instant; but no announcement has yet been made of its con- 
stituents; nor were there, two days since, any candidates for them 
to examine. If men are disposed to thus suffer themselves to be 
VOL. XXI. Qq 
