278 
SECOND ANNUAL MEETING 
0 
The consequence of which has been, that this school is now com¬ 
pelled to keep some pace with the progress of science, or to ap¬ 
pear to do so :—more diseases have been recognized ; the phar¬ 
macopeia has been increased, and theories of olden time have 
been modified, if not discarded. In the conducting of the school, 
the acquirement of anatomical knowledge, the only sure founda¬ 
tion of veterinary science, has been better secured by the appoint¬ 
ment of an efficient demonstrator; the lectures have been more 
regular, more numerous,—better studied, and more impressive; 
and the residence of the pupil, although not required to the ex¬ 
tent which the difficulty and the respectability of the art demand, 
has been materially lengthened. All this has been done within 
the last three years. Are there contradictory symptoms ? in¬ 
dications of a retrograde course ? It is in human nature that 
there should, for although the understanding may be convinced, 
a long course of error is not abandoned without some indications 
of chagrin, and some vain and pardonable attempts to limit or 
retard the submission which circumstances compel. The little 
mounds which disappointment or anger may have raised will 
soon be broken down or overflowed, and the stream of improve¬ 
ment wall pursue its course, until the English Veterinary College 
shall cease to be the only public school in which the instruction 
of the surgeon who is to practice on all domestic animals is con¬ 
fined to one alone—the only one in which the pupil is com¬ 
pelled to depend for a considerable portion of his education on 
eleemosynary, charity-school instruction, which, however honour¬ 
able to him who gratuitously bestows it, must be degrading to 
the recipient—the only one in which the time allotted for educa¬ 
tion is shorter than that which is devoted to preparation for 
the lowest mechanical art—the only one in which the practice of 
operations and the manipulations of the forge are systematically 
neglected—the only one in which liberal education and scientific 
acquirements are systematically discouraged—-the only one in 
which the pupil and the practitioner are insultingly excluded from 
privileges granted to eveiy one else—and the only one in which 
the important situation of examiner is occupied by those who are 
manifestly incompetent for it; whose absurd and obstinate deten- 
