158 
THE STUDENTS 
nature of the examiners ;—were we students of human medicine, 
we should feel the full force of the argument, and the signa¬ 
tures of such men would render the document inestimable : but 
to the diploma of a veterinary student such signatures are 
almost valueless—valueless in our estimation, and equally so in 
that of our employers— for such men, high as they may rank in 
their own profession, are not, and cannot be, j udges of the veterinary 
practitioner. We have no hesitation in saying that the signatures 
of Castley, Dick, Clark, Percivall, Watts, and Field, would con¬ 
fer a thousand times more value on the document, in the estima¬ 
tion of the veterinarian himself, and of all his employers. These 
men are competent judges of that on which they decide;—the 
present examiners know nothing about the matter, but they 
strangely pin their faith on the sleeves of others, when they affirm 
by their deliberate signature—what ?—not that the candidate is 
well versed in “ general anatomy and physiology/' according to 
the statement of the chairman, but that he is “ competent to 
practise the veterinary art.” 
The plain truth of the whole matter is, that the practitioners of 
human medicine are struggling for the restitution of certain 
rights, and for a reform in the general management of their 
interests. That fight once fought, another must and will follow. 
The veterinary practitioner!—he has no rights which he claimsto 
have restored; but he has a stronger, an irresistible claim—a 
claim for the acknowledgment of legal existence and protection . 
At present he is a kind of outcast. While the privileges of the 
medical practitioner are guarded by legal enactments, and his 
fair field of practice, and, what is dearer to him, his professional 
character are secured by the exclusion of those who have not 
proved themselves competent and worthy, the veterinary surgeon 
is elbowed, defamed, and robbed by those who frequently have 
no other claim than ignorance and presumption. This state of 
things must not, will not, continue ; the professional existence, 
and the rights and privileges of veterinary men, cannot fail of 
being soon admitted and secured. 
The method in which this is to be accomplished, and in which 
alone it can be truly and honestly so, is by the legal establish¬ 
ment of a body similar to the corporations of physicians, surgeons, 
