THE VETERINARIAN, JUNE 1, 1850. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — C icero. 
The General Meeting of the Royal College of Veterinary Sur- 
geons, as compared with past meetings of the kind, will stand 
chronicled in our pages for the largeness of the number present, 
for the absence of that clamorous and querulous debate which has 
been any thing but agreeable or creditable to us on former occa- 
sions, for the absence of the President, and for an evident change, 
if not in opinion, at least in the preponderance of party. The 
number of members present our reporter states to have been “ be- 
tween sixty and seventy we believe sixty-five to be the precise 
number. The meeting was, certainly, of a highly respectable cha- 
racter ; and we were glad to see present most of the old and more 
influential members of the veterinary profession resident in and 
near the metropolis, together with a fair sprinkling out of the coun- 
try. The indisposition of the President — Mr. Thomas Turner — 
was a theme of universal regret. From the circumstance of no 
one but himself having as yet occupied the chair ; from his un- 
wearied attention to his duties as Chairman, as well at Council 
as at General Meetings ; and from all that he is remembered to 
have done in obtaining the Charter and giving operation and 
efficiency to it, the absence of Mr. Turner on this important occa- 
sion, and particularly when the cause of such absence came to be 
known, was by all present very much lamented. Inquiries con- 
cerning his health were many and anxious of his brother and son, 
who were both present at the Meeting, and who reported so 
favourably of it that the feeling of regret gave way rapidly to an 
expression of joy at the hope of seeing our friend shortly again in 
his place. 
Before what we are now writing will appear in public the Council 
will have holden their meeting for the annual election of President. 
Our Charter has vested this privilege in the Council which other 
charters direct to be determined by the suffrage of the profession 
at large. We are not going here to inquire which of the two is 
the more eligible mode of election. All that we shall say on the 
matter is, that in our own mind we have always deemed it im- 
perative on the electors to take their President from among the 
elders, the best informed and most respected of their professional 
body ; and that, though there may exist reasons for occasional 
deviation from this patent, straightforward, and, as it would to us 
appear, dutiful rule of procedure, yet, ought such reasons be 
VOL. XXIII. 3 B 
