CONSTITUTION OF THE VETERINARY COLLEGE. 459 
the diploma of veterinary surgeons, and Mr. Coleman had ne¬ 
glected to enforce those laws, then the profession would have just 
cause to inveigh against the admittance of such a motley tribe as 
usually form the college circle of pupils—men who can scarcely 
pen their own name; and how can it be otherwise, when mutton- 
pie men, ratcatchers, razor-strap makers, and blacksmiths, are 
suffered to usurp the place of men of science ? 
Mr. Coleman cannot be acquitted of blame for encouraging a 
class of men to enter the veterinary profession, as he usually 
does in his introductory lecture, who are totally unfit for this 
station; yet we are none of us prepared to shew, that, legally, 
he has no right to do so: but that, in doing this, he should be 
suffered to deter men of education from pursuing veterinary 
science, is attributable only to the inefficiency of the laws that 
govern our national institution. 
So long as the profession is made, by such laws, subservient to 
the interest of one man, so sure must it sink in the scale as it 
raises the beam in favouRof individual gain. 
In stating this, I do not allude pailicularly to the present pro¬ 
fessor ; for when Mr. Sewell succeeds to Mr. Coleman, as he 
perhaps will, the same laws existing, the same feeling vrill pro¬ 
bably prompt him to act as his predecessor did. Will the pro¬ 
fession, then, be at all benefitted by the change ? Certainly not: 
the evil exists in the ill-judged laws of the institution, and the 
professor has it not in his power to alter them, even if he had the 
inclination; nor is it likely that any radical alteration will ever be 
recommended by one, whose own^ interest must be so much 
opposed to it. 
By the peremptory refusal of the examining committee to re¬ 
commend to the governors the admittance of veterinary surgeons 
to their board, and thus to deny them the least presidency over 
their own interest, the profession must justly conclude that their 
only hopes can be centered in an appeal to the governors of the 
institution. 
It is difficult to reconcile the motives that can have induced 
the examining committee thus to sacrifice the welfare of ^ laudable 
profession. But the governors of the institution are alone answer- 
able for all the wrongs the profession has but too tamely borne : 
they alone have it in their power to reform our grievances; and 
if they would but use their own judgment, unswayed by interested 
individuals, the powerful voice of a whole profession would not be. 
heard in vain. 
The exercise of unjust influence has been suffered to commit 
such ravages upon the veterinary profession in this country, that 
will neither be easily effaced, nor ever can be wholly repaired. 
