COMMENTS ON MR BROWNES BEQUEST. 245 
may now add that I never felt more pleasure than during the 
perusal of your excellent “ address/’ at the commencement of 
the present year, in which you noticed those things connected 
with the profession which had been accomplished, as w T ell as 
those which were still left undone ; and also passed in review 
the more prominent subjects which had occupied the pages of 
your journal during that period, concluding with a feeling 
allusion to those of our brethren who had been beckoned 
from among the crowd, some at the very commencement of 
their professional career, others while busily engaged in its 
toils and anxieties, and a few (and may you never again have 
to record such barbarities), after having passed a long and 
useful life, by the cruel hand of the savage mutineer. 
But there is one subject which seems to have escaped your 
fruitful pen, probably for the reason that none of your 
talented contributors have reminded you of it. I allude to 
a munificent bequest by the late Mr. Brown, of Dublin, the 
Veterinarian for June, 1857, from which I gain all the infor- 
mation I possess on the matter. Now, Messrs. Editors, with- 
out inquiring why the London University should be for- 
tunate beyond the other universities of this and the sister 
kingdom, I think we have a just right as veterinary surgeons 
to ask how 7 it comes that the legitimate veterinary schools of 
the country, one of wffiich, at least, the alma mater of many 
of us, w r e know possesses a staff, the talent of which, collec- 
tively or individually taken, w 7 ould do honour to any in- 
stitution, should be thus overlooked and neglected, nay , 
wronged. Is it because as a chartered body we are so little 
known? or as a profession so little appreciated? Or, will the 
“ lord justices” even tell us they w ere ignorant of our very 
existence ? Be which it may, it is high time we w T ere up and 
doing, for, although all our exertions might not affect the 
past, as we are told it is difficult to obtain “ butter from a 
dog’s mouth,” and “ folly to cry after spilled milk,” yet, it 
might serve us for the future. Be it remembered that, 
although since the obtain ment of our charter many rich 
professors and other members wffio had seen and lived in 
golden days, have passed from among us, we have not yet 
rejoiced in a single bequest to our profession, although we 
often hear of legacies being given to the Royal College of 
Surgeons in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields. There are not wanting 
instances w’here even the decisions of lords justices are sub- 
ject to appeal and reversal, and I do think the profession, either 
collectively or through their representatives the “ council,” 
should take notice of such an important occurrence, since 
£20,000, or at a moderate rate of interest £600 a-year, is no 
trifle. 
