466 PROFESSOR Coleman’s introductory lecture. 
The worst practitioners! the most unskilful! mere botchers 
and biinglers, who know not the symptoms of disease, or the 
application of remedies! If words have meaning, this is the con¬ 
struction. When Mr. Coleman has erased—which he would not 
if he could—these names from the short but valued list of vete¬ 
rinary worth, we will allow the truth of his position; but, until 
that, we can only consider it as one of the strange and unaccount¬ 
able aberrations of eminent men. 
Blit the medically educated veterinarian often relinquishes his 
profession,—and so does the veterinarian, from whatever class he 
comes. We are acquainted with too many, who, with all the pre¬ 
vious drilling which Mr. Coleman represents as so important, have 
utterly failed, or else have been compelled to mingle other avoca¬ 
tions with the practice of the veterinary art, in order to obtain a 
livelihood. 
The medically educated veterinarian is sometimes driven in dis¬ 
gust from his profession. What drives him from it ? The low 
estimation in which the veterinary surgeon is often held; the 
% 
omnipotence of the coachman and the groom, who will place con¬ 
fidence in none far removed from their own grade, or who will not 
mingle with them in their debauchery, or satisfy their cupidity: 
and last, and not least, this incautious and indefensible comparison 
of Mr. Coleman, which is spread throughout the country, the 
quode of the groom, the boast of the farrier, the support of igno¬ 
rance, and the bane of respectability. 
Two students were conversing together as we quitted the college 
after the introductory lecture. Our professor gave it to the sur¬ 
geons just now prettily, didn’t he?” said one. Aye, that he 
did,” replied the other; ’twill lower ’em a bit.” Such is the 
feeling,—such the party spirit, which must inevitably result from 
comparisons like these; and when there is a line of demarcation 
traced, and yearly widened and blackened, between the scientific 
and uneducated practitioner, and the head of the profession goes 
out of his way to advocate the cause of the latter, there needs no 
ghost to tell us what will become of the improvement and respect¬ 
ability of the profession. 
After all, however, the introductoiy lecture of this year was not, 
by a great deal, so objectionable on this point as it used to be; 
