400 
THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
respectability and education shall be found to be universally dif¬ 
fused among us, that any thing like professional harmony can 
exist.” I would add, “ or the objects at which you aim, and 
which I devoutly wish to see accomplished, can be secured.” 
Therefore, gentlemen, go on steadily. Festina lente . Your Jour¬ 
nal will diffuse much useful knowledge among your brethren. 
The manner in which it is conducted will command respect even 
from those who ought not to have been admitted among us, and 
will incite them to endeavour not to disgrace that connexion 
which they have been so fortunate as to form ; and those whose 
negligence and misconduct you attack, while they fear and hate, 
will secretly esteem you. Endeavour to improve the system of 
college education. Fearlessly, but without malignity, expose 
every departure from the original design of the institution—every 
violation of public promise, every sacrifice of a valuable profes¬ 
sion to self-interest, and every endeavour to perpetuate the de¬ 
based condition of the veterinary practitioner. 
There is a knot of practitioners now in the metropolis, worthy 
of their profession. I am told that the greatest cordiality exists 
among them. Let that union be cherished. Let no professional 
jealousy ever disturb it. There are others scattered through the 
country; and there are many army veterinary surgeons who are 
an honour to the name they bear. Let these men be gradually 
approximated and bound together, and let the tie that unites 
them be—“ the cause of the profession." Let the Veterinary 
Medical Society continue honestly devoted to the pursuit of 
science. I do not, indeed, think that, of late, its discussions have 
improved ; they have been too conversational, and too personal : 
however, let the Society be honestly devoted to the pursuit of 
science ; let more of those truly valuable papers which have en¬ 
riched your Journal appear; let medical men, and the better 
classes of the community, be convinced that there are those 
among us u with whom it would be no disgrace to associate 
and things will, in due time, w T ork their w r ay, and all will be as 
you and I ardently desire. Such an association, or any society 
formed by men of such a description, would, in the language of 
Mr. Field, “ be the nucleus round w T hich the veterinary profes- 
