ANNUAL DINNER. 
159 
and apothecaries ; the original members of which shall be selected 
from the profession generally; (not, perhaps, necessarily excluding 
the conductors of certain schools, but altogether independent of 
them) ; and where veterinary men shall decide on the competence 
of veterinary students, and defend the rights of veterinary prac- 
titioners, and without a diploma from whom no one shall here¬ 
after be permitted to commence practice. 
This will, ere long, be claimed and granted ; but then all 
exclusive privilege must merge in the general interest. It was 
as a feeler with regard to this that the new toast was proposed. 
How short-sighted must they be who would oppose this just 
demand ! Some exclusive privilege must be sacrificed ; but the 
number of veterinary pupils would speedily be doubled, trebled ; 
and so would their respectability too. The prosperity of our 
art would take its date from the legal recognition of our claims, 
and the provisions that would necessarily result from that 
recognition. 
There was another new feature, and a most important one, 
in Sir Astley’s address to the students on that day. While the 
instructions delivered at the College had reference to the horse 
alone, so of the horse alone did we hear at these dinners, 
whether from the chairman, or Mr. Coleman, or the visitors. It 
was only last year that the reporter of the proceedings at the 
dinner complained that while “ three of the invited ones ad¬ 
dressed the meeting on the scope and bound of veterinary in¬ 
struction, they all of them confined it to the horse, and to the 
horse alone.” 
At this dinner Sir Astley told the students that their attention 
must not be confined u to the horse alone,” but extended to 
cattle, and other legitimate objects of their future care; and he 
illustrated this by an anecdote. He was lately travelling in a 
certain part of the kingdom, and he met with a veterinary 
surgeon whom he had known and respected in town; and after 
the common civilities of meeting, he asked him how, in the name 
of wonder, he came to set himself down there, for there could not 
be horses enough in his neighbourhood to provide him with 
bread and cheese, by the medical treatment of them. i( Very 
true,” was the reply; “ but you must please to recollect that this 
