51 
THE EDITORS’ ADDRESS TO THEIR READERS. 
lie had obtained the requisite skill, and knowledge, and reputation, 
he might challenge as a kind of birthright, the governors have 
determined that he shall not be admitted as even a subscriber to 
the College. He is declared to be an outcast from the school at 
which he was educated, and which he loves. He is denied a 
privilege most enviable to him, and which he would not, could 
not have abused,—a privilege granted to every other member of 
society, be his situation ever so low, his character ever so 
degraded. 
Worse even than this! the veterinary practitioners publicly 
convened, and occupied in the consideration of the honour of their 
profession, disgraced themselves by a scene of disorder, uproar, 
malignity, and blackguardism, which the annals of tumultuous 
assemblies will scarcely equal. 
This is the dark side of the picture: there is, however, much 
to relieve it, and to enable us to regard it, if not with satisfaction, 
yet without despondence. First of all, w T e w T ould direct the atten¬ 
tion of the governors and the professors of the College, and even 
of the pro-coilegiates who so distinguished themselves on a late 
occasion, to the undeniable state of public feeling. Is there an 
individual competent to judge of the matter wffio does not cen¬ 
sure and wonder ? Among the practitioners of human medicine 
is there a solitary advocate for the exclusion of the veterinary sur¬ 
geon from his own board of examination ? Among the practiti¬ 
oners of the veterinary art, and w ho from habit and feeling are in¬ 
terested in the character and prosperity of the College, is there 
one who is thoroughly satisfied? Among the personal friends of 
the professors or the governors, is there one who does not feel and 
lament imperfections and errors at head quarters? and from those 
in the higher ranks of society, and of paramount influence and 
power, have not some sufficiently intelligible hints been received ? 
What must ere long be the inevitable result of all this ? Can 
negligence and corruption maintain their ground against the force 
of public opinion ? 
The influence of the Veterinary Medical Society on the charac¬ 
ter and worth of the members of the profession, devoting itself, 
as this society purely does, to the search of truth and the disse¬ 
mination of useful knowledge, is neither slow nor uncertain. 
