TO VETERINARY STUDY. 
415 
fession select and respectable, and the object of honourable ambi¬ 
tion. It would be so with the veterinary, surgeon. If two years’ 
residence were required at the Veterinary College, the num¬ 
ber of students might probably be diminished, but their character 
would be improved. -They would come with better preparation, 
and they would have fairer opportunity to do j ustice to themselves 
and their profession. They would, from education and proper 
feeling, avoid the errors, and habits, and associates of some of 
their brethren. Others of the same, or perhaps a still superior 
grade of society, would be tempted to join us; and although we 
should never attain an equality with the human practitioner, we 
should be more worthy of, and much more likely to possess, his 
friendship and confidence. 
The number of students might be diminished, but not possibly 
to any considerable degree. They whose means were insufficient 
to enable them to remain the full period, might come, as they do 
nowj for a little while, and might return to their forges with a cer¬ 
tain degree of improvement. The fees paid by them would still 
belong to the professor, and, if his income was somewhat dimi¬ 
nished by the change, he would continue to pocket no despicable 
sum. He would have no just cause to complain if he received all 
that the true interest and respectability of the profession would 
permit; or if he did complain, and the governors would listen to his 
complaint, he might be reimbursed from the funds of the college. 
The inadequate instruction of the pupil, and parti<^ularly on 
this point, is the main cause of our present degradation; and in 
some cavalry regiments, the veterinary surgeon, although a gentle¬ 
man, in virtue of the commission which he bears, is not permitted 
to mess with the officers from this peculiarity of his medical edu¬ 
cation, and the uncertainty, we were going to write the improba¬ 
bility, of their being able to associate pleasantly with him. 
While we censure the veterinarian thus situated for quietly 
yielding to the exclusion, and compromising the dignity of his 
profession, we truly pity him. The ensign meets and converses 
freely with his commanding officer. The surgeon, and even the 
assistant surgeon, associate on equal terms with those who bear his 
majesty’s commission, but whom the veterinary surgeon is com¬ 
pelled with all due humility to cap. Let our examiners and our 
