EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
115 
We may, perhaps, by some be thought to be affected with 
the cacoethes scribendi, but it should be remembered that it is 
a part of our business to write and make comments ; whether 
we do so wisely and well, we must leave others to judge. 
But we will not retort. Rather would we act in accordance 
with the quaint advice of Quarles , — iS Hath any wronged 
thee ? Be bravely revenged : slight it, and the work’s begun ; 
forgive it, and ’tis finished.” 
THE GABRIEL TESTIMONIAL. 
We sincerely regret the existence of an error in reference 
to the above subject in our last number. It is therein stated 
that, from the first desire being expressed that the pro- 
fession should become an incorporated body, to the obtain- 
ment of the Charter, and up to the present time, Mr. Gabriel 
had filled the responsible office of Secretary. In this we 
were not quite correct. At the very beginning, and while 
as yet the possession of the Charter was in abeyance, 
Mr. Thomas Walton Mayer performed the duties of Secre- 
tary, and that very much to the satisfaction of those with 
whom he was associated. But as soon as the Charter \vas 
granted by the Crown, on the situation being offered to him 
for a continuance, Mr. Mayer declined accepting it on the 
ground that such an office should be held by one resident 
in London. It was then that Mr. Gabriel was elected, and 
from that time to this he has continued to act as Secretary 
to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons; during the 
succeeding four years, we believe, he received no acknow- 
ledgment for his services, the funds of the young institution 
not allowing of it. 
As the possession of the Charter is now a matter of 
history, and all the facts connected with its obtainment can 
be gathered from the recorded minutes of the meetings of 
the provisional Committee ; we owe this explanation in 
common justice to Mr. Mayer, whose energy at the time we 
