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ON THE GRIEVANCES OF THE VETERINARY 
PROFESSION. 
By Mr. W. C. Spooner, V.S., Winchester. 
The human mind delights in novelty: we soon get tired of 
viewing the same object, and are ever ready to apply the term 
hacknied to the repeated discussion of the same topic; and yet, 
in spite of this, I am just about to pen some observations on that 
oft-debated subject, viz. the Grievances of the Veterinary 
Profession. That our profession has not yet obtained that root 
and confidence in the public mind which its importance merits, 
I think'is acknowledged by nearly every practitioner; and few, 
I trust, will deny, that union and concord afford the surest 
means of attaining it. Some time since a great stir was made 
with a view of obtaining seats for veterinary surgeons at the 
board of examiners; and it seemed to be imagined by some, 
that the attainment of their object would be the panacea for all 
our evils, the cure for all our grievances; but though I believe 
that it would be extremely desirable, yet I still think that the 
benefits from it would be but trifling, if our requests were to 
cease here, or to stop short of any thing but legislative protection. 
xAnd here I would venture to express an opinion, though it may 
be both isolated and erroneous, that I cannot think that the 
metropolitan veterinarians acted wisely in not acceding to the 
plan of the examining committee for forming a double board # . 
They should, I imagine, have laid hold of this concession, and it 
would have afforded them a vantage ground for obtaining other 
desirable objects. I, for one, should be sorry to see the present 
examining committee done away with ; they are, I think, fully 
competent to examine the pupil on many very important branches 
* Our correspondent will recollect, that at the adjourned meeting' of 
“ The Metropolitan Veterinarians” it was, at the recommendation of Mr. 
Coleman, carried unanimously, that “ A separate examining veterinary 
committee was expedient;” that at a subsequent general meeting, at which 
much unpleasant and disgraceful altercation was displayed, this resolution 
was not rescinded ; but that it was at a third meeting (at which, dis¬ 
gusted at the scenes they had witnessed, neither of the Percivalls, nor the 
Fields, nor the Turners, nor Henderson, would attend, and from which 
Messrs. Goodwin, and Langworthy,and Marshall, and Mavor, and Symonds, 
and Fenwick, and Cooke, and Cannon, and several others, still led thither by 
their zeal in a good cause, were driven by brutal violence, and at which a 
contemptible minority, certainly not more than half a dozen “metropolitan 
veterinarians,” remained) that the proceedings of the former nights were 
quashed, and it was determined that this separate examining committee 
was uncalled for. The indelible disgrace of that meeting, on whomsoever 
it may fall, does not, cannot attach, to “the metropolitan veterinarians.” 
