IMPROVEMENT OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 51 1 
career of every human practitioner? Have you never asked 
yourselves, whether if the better part of us were to memorialise 
government to this effect, or if some influential member of par¬ 
liament were to make it the subject of grave discussion and severe 
enquiry in the common's house, and to state, and justly state, 
that we are a branch of the medical profession, although an infe¬ 
rior one ; that more than a hundred millions ot the property of 
the country are at our mercy, benefitted by our skill, and de¬ 
teriorated by our ignorance; and that, therefore, j ustice to us, and 
justice to the interests of the country demanded, that if we were 
not placed on a level w 7 ith our brethren of human medicine (and 
that we did not ask), we should at least be treated in a similar 
way; and that our profession, and the lives of our patients, and 
the property of the country, should have a similar guard; have 
you never asked yourselves whether this would not carry so much 
reason and propriety on the face of it that it would be immediately 
granted ? 
° r 
Would the memorialists or the patriotic senator want other 
arguments ? Let him move for the production of the soi-disant 
veterinary college books; the—the—the—previous employment 9 
and the previous advantages, and the length of study of too many 
a veterinarian whose name is recorded in those books: let him ask 
what the colonels of regiments have thought of, and what they 
have been obliged to do with many young men of college recom¬ 
mendation ; let him ask what is the opinion of cavalry officers 
of college recommendation; let him ask what is the opinion of 
sporting men of college practice, and what is the opinion of 
agriculturists of college students. 
If all this could be brought under the cognizance of govern¬ 
ment, the case would be too plain to admit of a moment’s hesita¬ 
tion. 
I have said that this college of veterinary surgeons should be 
independent of every school. It is my private opinion, that no 
teacher or lecturer should have a place at the examiners’ board 
of any such college; but as teachers and lecturers are found at 
the board of examination at Surgeons’ and Apothecaries’ Hall, 
and the system has worked well, why e'en let them be found 
