OF VETERINARY PRACTITIONERS. 
277 
present. Gratitude and interest identify us with the existence 
and prosperity of that institution. If it stands high in public 
estimation, our respectability is proportionably increased. If, from 
misapprehension on the part of the public, or its own misconduct, 
it is censured or almost despised, we, to a painful extent, neces¬ 
sarily sink with it. Its true interests, as a national institution, 
are inseparably connected wnth ours; and we cannot be other¬ 
wise than sincerely attached to it. There are, however, dif¬ 
ferent w r ays of shewing love. One person can see no fault 
in the object of his affection, and defends as excellencies 
its greatest inconsistencies. Another is fully alive to every 
excellence, but he is not insensible to those imperfections to 
which every individual and every institution is liable; and he 
has sufficient courage, or rather affection, to discharge the most 
painful, but paramount duty of love, namely, to endeavour to 
rectify those faults. The present company may be made up of 
both these descriptions of persons. The feeling in all is the same, 
but the manner of expressing it is different. Each party is 
equally sincere: the one must not be accused of servile and inte¬ 
rested flattery, nor must the other be suspected of aversion or 
malignity. I confess that I belong to the latter class; for al¬ 
though I admire the excellence of the original design of the Vete¬ 
rinary College, and am sensible of, and grateful for the advan¬ 
tages which it is capable of bestowing, I see many faults which 
its infancy did not predict, and which its maturity ought not to 
possess. One thing, however, we must all rejoice in, that the im¬ 
provement of this institution, although not satisfactory, has of late 
been evident; andmorehas been effected, in the way of improvement, 
within the last three years than in the preceding twenty. Vete¬ 
rinary societies have arisen within that period, and in their dis¬ 
cussions enlarged and correct views have been given of the nature 
and treatment of many diseases already recognized, and of 
others most important in their character, but previously unsus¬ 
pected. Veterinary journals have also been established, and 
their columns have embodied, as it were, the experience and 
practice of the whole profession; and, differing, in a variety of re¬ 
spects, from the theory and practice of the St. Pancras school. 
