VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
654 
Transactions of the Veterinary Medical Society are, at no great 
distance of time we trust, given to the public, not scattered over 
the pages of our humble periodical, but collected, as they de¬ 
serve to be, in a volume of some bulk, the profession will rank 
this institution amidst its most valued ornaments. 
There is one circumstance particularly honourable to the 
Society: the discussions may occasionally have been warm, 
perhaps a little too personal, but party spirit has never found its 
way among them, and scarcely an expression has dropped from a 
single individual that could have given umbrage to those who 
differed most widely from him on veterinary politics. The avowed 
object of the Society, the search of truth and the improvement of 
veterinary practice, has been undeviatingly pursued. Wars and 
rumours of wars existed without, but in this assembly remained 
that quietude of the passions and stillness of the mind which were 
most favourable to scientific discussion ; and this without any 
compromise of principle, for they who were most committed in 
the cause of veterinary reform, were thus quietly but securely, 
unobservedly but rapidly, accomplishing their glorious object. 
In proportion as veterinary science improved, veterinary educa¬ 
tion would improve too. Veterinary teachers must keep pace 
with the progress of the times. They will be forced, in spite of 
themselves, to adopt plans of amelioration. In proportion as 
the views of the practitioner become more enlarged and correct, 
and he understands the important and influential principles of 
his profession, will he rise in public estimation. The ardent 
reformer well knows that, more surely and more rapidly than by 
open contention, he is approaching these sacred objects which 
he had sworn to accomplish. 
In the character which the Society has thus obtained, and the 
known determination of the most zealous of its members, we 
have the assured pledge, that good feelings and good principles 
will never here be wrecked ; that men of every party may mingle 
fearlessly in it, and that he must be a bold man indeed who 
would dare to lift the torch of discord. If the discussions during' 
the latter part of the last session were not quite what they used 
to be, the cause w^as plain enough,—the chairmen did not always 
sufficiently enforce salutary authority—instead of superintending 
and guiding the debate, they occasionally mixed too much and 
