QUALIFICATIONS FOR A VETERINARY SURGEON. 135 
succeed or quit the profession, is perhaps because they do not 
find it equally lucrative/’ 
Now, Sir, 1 would ask you how it is possible for a profession 
to advance in the estimation of the public, when such senti¬ 
ments are held forth by the person who is looked up to as its 
head : it is a bar to all advancement, and to all industry; for 
the farrier’s son, on hearing such sentiments, naturally says, 
I require only a certain quantum of knowledge, and I amper- 
fection.” The medical man, let his knowledge be what it will, 
is constantly looked upon with an eye of prejudice ; and should 
his ultimate object be a veterinary appointment, his hopes 
* must necessarily be annihilated. As far as the competency of 
a medical man goes to make a veterinary surgeon, I would ask 
eveiy man of common sense, who can be so fit ? As reasoning 
from analogy (which the Professor will not allow, though all the 
time he himself is constantly doing so) he is already half way in 
his business. There is no general rule without an exception, and 
I have no doubt there are many medical men who never would 
make good veterinary surgeons ; but this does not apply to all: 
in town and its vicinity perhaps it may, because it is not 
requisite ; but go into the country, and where will you find 
better horse-men, or men who keep better horses than the 
medical man does : they are compelled to be so, from the many 
miles they are in the daily habit of riding. Will the Professor 
pretend to tell any man at all capable of reasoning, that such 
a man is not more competent, with the least attention, of be¬ 
coming :a veterinary surgeon than the .ignorant groom or 
village blacksmith : the former has to learn a little practical 
information that the latter knows by practice only, and which 
can be easily learnt in a short period by common attention ; 
but can the latter learn Anatomy, Physiology, and Patho¬ 
logy in a short period ? No ; he cannot: it would take him 
years ; and which, if we are to know our profession, is as 
absolutely requisite in one case as the other, though Mr. 
Coleman may not consider it necessary for his pupils. The 
summit of the farrier’s son’s education, which is reading and 
writing, will never allow him to reach beyond a certain point; 
he has the liberty of attending certain lectures in town, it is 
true, but he has not the time to do so, unless he neglects more 
important concerns; and if he had, he has not the ability to 
understand them. He goes then to the College for a few 
months ; has his head filled with a few theories of the foot, and 
a parcel of hard words he is incapable of understanding ; and is 
then sent home as a monstrous clever fellow. Yet this sort of 
person is to be set in competition with a man of science and 
