247 
ON PROFESSOR COLEMAN’S PECULIAR DOCTRINES. 
By Charles Clark, Esq. V. S. London. 
“ I AM come to learn, and not to teach,” was Mr. Edward Cole- 
man’s modest declaration when first inducted as resident Professor 
at the College. This remark was directed by him to some of the 
elder pupils of the first Professor, St. Bel, who had been conduct- 
ing the business of the establishment and the infirmary for several 
months since his lamented demise, both with credit to themselves 
and advantage to the institution. But a recognized superior was 
absolutely necessary; and, depending upon the known veterinary 
skill and experience of Mr. Moorcroft, who had consented to fill 
the office of Senior and Consulting Professor, the committee of ma- 
nagement were ready to avail themselves of the services of any 
aspirant, of even moderate pretensions, in a situation which was 
then neither lucrative or desirable. Such an admission must have 
appeared particularly befitting and proper in the case of a young 
surgeon like Mr Coleman, who thus found himself transmuted 
from a limited practice in Palsgrave Court, in the Strand, to the si- 
tuation of professor of the veterinary art, for which he was very 
slightly qualified, either by habits, taste, or previous experience. 
It is well known that the interest of his late teacher, Mr. Cline, 
and other medical friends, sufficed to procure him the appoint- 
ment ; and also that Mr. Moorcroft shortly after ceased his attend- 
ance at the new College, either from inability to coincide with the 
theoretical views of his colleague, or from the pressure of his pri- 
vate business in Oxford Street. Passing on at once to this period, 
we find Mr. Coleman suddenly placed at the head of the first and 
only school in England for the cultivation of veterinary science. 
Enough had already been done in the three preceding years to give 
a name and existence to our art, and to place it side by side with 
the medical profession. So delightful and interesting in itself, and 
so eminently useful to the public, it was impossible that it could 
again revert into the hands of the illiterate farrier, or that any ob- 
stacle could seriously or entirely obstruct its certain onward march, 
as a liberal science. Mr. Coleman found a spirit alive in the minds 
of St. Bel’s pupils, Messrs. Bloxain, Bracy Clark, R. Lawrence, 
Field, Bond, and others, which would have prevented such a result, 
although I believe he himself was once far from sanguine respect- 
ing the triumph of the veterinary surgeon over vulgar prejudice and 
time-honoured errors. He was, however, a professor ; and, as such, 
something might be expected from him, in order to vindicate and jus- 
