114 
VETERINARY ANNIVERSARY DINNER. 
the principal link in the chain of many a delightful association 
was wanting. 
From the time that Mr. Coleman retired from the chair at 
the anniversary dinner, these meetings lost much of their inte¬ 
rest, and have dwindled away ; and especially when it was be¬ 
ginning to be forgotten, until nearly the close of the feast, that 
we were veterinarians, and, more especially, when the examining < 
committee, of which Sir Astley was the president, had refused to 
associate with us elsewhere, and, by the exclusion of veterinary 
surgeons from their board, had been heaping indignity on the 
profession at large. These are indications of public feeling which 
he must be dull indeed who can misunderstand. Still we think 
that, on such a day, all this should have been forgotten, and the 
practitioners should have rallied round their old instructor, and 
shewn some respect to the institution whence they sprung. 
Mr. Coleman’s allusion to his enemies we do not perfectly un¬ 
derstand. Who are they ? If they exist, they are few indeed, i 
We believe that he would be somewhat puzzled to select half a 
dozen from the whole profession who owe him personal ill-will, or 
who would “ drive” him from the situation which he has so long 
occupied. 
If by “ enemies” he means those who think, and are not afraid 
to say, that the college system of education is not that which the 
founders of the college contemplated, which all other schools pos¬ 
sess, and which the improvement of the pupils, the respectability 
of the profession, and the interests of the country demand, why 
then he has a host of foes, against whom he cannot long success¬ 
fully contend ;—he has the united profession arrayed against him. 
If he does not distinguish between these things, we regret it. 
If he purposely confounds them, it is not fair. 
Let Mr. Coleman make this experiment; let him evidently, 
and in evident earnest, commence that reformation in the national 
school which justice demands—let a regular and stated course of 
anatomical demonstrations be given—let every manipulation of 
the stable, the forge, the surgery, and the laboratory, be explain¬ 
ed to, and its practice required from, every pupil—let the students 
be instructed in the diseases of every animal that will afterwards 
require their assistance, and, above all, let a more protracted re- 
