318 
LETTER TO SIR ASTLEY COOPER. 
They have gone much further, they have branded the whole vete¬ 
rinary profession ivith incompetency to sit with them on the ve- 
terijiary examining committee. In my mind, there appears to be 
only one reasonable mode of accounting for the origin of so galling 
a denunciation, and that is founded upon the superficialness of 
their knowledge on subjects about which they presume, and would 
have us believe, they know so much: indeed, so strange and other¬ 
wise unaccountable does this very act of their excluding us from 
the committee appear to me, that, if I lacked other proofs, I should 
feel no hesitation in urging it as presumptive evidence of their utter 
incompetence for the situation in which, for the want of better men, 
they were placed. There is one set of men who are equally am¬ 
bitious of rivalling us with themselves, and whose presumption 
has the same shallow basis—I mean the grooms; but then these 
self-constituted worthies would consider themselves demeaned in¬ 
deed were their horse-knowledge set in comparison with that of a 
surgeon or physician; they would as soon think of seeing a reve¬ 
rend divine prescribing for a horse as a doctor! And, really, were 
I so situated as to be compelled to deliver over my patient either 
to the groom or to the physician, I should be greatly disposed to 
make choice of the former; and for this simple reason, because 
there would be a chance of the one doing good, though there 
would also be the risk of his doing harm; but with the latter, there 
would be no chance of his doing either good or haiin—all that he 
would effect would most assuredly amount to nothing. 
What, then, became of this insulting proposition ? Were we yet 
further to be insulted by having it proclaimed to us ? No! it met, 
in embryo, with its deseiwed fate—rejection—even in a quarter 
whence one had but little to expect, even among the governors ; 
who here really did us a piece of undoubted justice, and in which 
we will do them the favour not to inquire into their motives for 
such a charitable act. 
Supposing, however, that so great an honour had been conferred 
upon us, as graciously to permit us to fonn ourselves into a con¬ 
clave, whose duty should be that of the governess of a preparatoiy 
school, only differing from it in one trifling particular, which is, 
that, while the governess prepares her pupils for more intelligent 
and competent masters, we transfer ours to finish their examina¬ 
tion before masters who, in every body’s estimation but their own, 
know even less about the matter than the very pupils they pretend 
to examine! I mean, good sir—don’t be alarmed— Tis^pure vete¬ 
rinarians. I say, supposing such a side-door had been tlirown open 
to us, pray. Sir Astley, how many do you imagine would have en¬ 
tered? or, if any did, of what description do you conceive they 
would have been ? For my own part, much as 1 respect eveiy* 
