THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
425 
Of the character and results of the late scholastic year we speak 
with reluctance and pain. From the foundation of the College to 
the present day, there never was a session more unfavourable to 
the improvement of the pupil. The lectures were delivered at the 
usual periods, but the students carried not with them to the theatre 
or to the dissecting room a mind capable of close attention to the 
subjects before them. They were divided into parties. There 
were those who were anxious to prepare themselves for the duties 
of after-life, who earnestly desired the improvement of their 
art, and were ready to contribute, and did contribute to the utmost 
of their power, to the utility of their periodical meetings. A still 
larger party, adopting a spirit of exclusiveness, w'ould contribute 
nothing to the general fund, but at the close of each periodical 
meeting of the Association adjourn to some neighbouring 
public house, and there, in conclave close, sit in judgment on 
what they had heard, and whisper to each other the opinions 
that were not to spread beyond their own exclusive circle. 
The visits of practitioners became more unfrequent and irre- 
gular. Those from whom much useful information had been 
formerly derived either came not at all, or were silent when they 
did come. The reporter had not been sufficiently accustomed to 
medical subjects and medical terms. His reports, therefore, 
were not always so accurate as they should have been, and family 
afflictions and long illness materially increased the imperfections 
of his notes. 
In the mean time the students became more divided into sec- 
tions and parties, and ill-feeling and discord usurped the place 
of friendship, union, and mutual improvement. The efforts of the 
Professors generally were, to a certain degree, neutralized. At 
the lectures, in the dissecting room, and at the Association, the 
baneful influence of discordant feelings were too frequently evi- 
dent. In the meetings of the Association the writer of this had, 
towards the close of the session, opportunity to witness the zeal 
with which Messrs. Spooner and Morton pursued the straight- 
forward and honourable path of duty. The former was present 
whenever his avocations or his studies would permit : the latter 
was always at his post. They were ever ready to communicate 
instruction ; but they could not always view the scenes that 
