224 ADJOURNED GENERAL MEETING OF 
has brought sad disgrace on the profession generally; and I would 
say of the College itself, that its affairs are not going on pros¬ 
perously. 
On looking over the list for 1825, I find the number of sub¬ 
scribers to be 1140; but on examining the list for 1828, I find 
that that number has sank to 994, making an unexpected and 
positive decrease of 146. On discovering this, I was disposed to 
look further, and took the three first letters of the alphabet. 
The letter A contained 53 subscribers, 19 of whom had with¬ 
drawn their subscriptions; the letter B contained 103, 29 of 
whom had withdrawn their subscriptions; C contained 114, 
50 of whom had withdrawn their subscriptions : and all this has 
taken place, notwithstanding the overbeaiing inducement of 
having their horses attended for nothing, and of being able to 
purchase their drugs for half their value. Now, I would ask any 
man among us, if he is losing at the rate of a hundred per arm. 
which the subscriptions of 146 would be pretty much equivalent 
to, how he could call his a flourishing concern ? I confess it ap¬ 
pears to me a paradox. Much of this, I say, must have arisen 
from the insufficiency of the examining committee; and that is my 
reason for considering there ought to be a change in the consti¬ 
tution of that committee. 
Mr. W. Goodwin. —Before, sir, the question is put, I would 
beg to ask, if the education of a veterinary surgeon is to be con¬ 
sidered a liberal one, or simply the education of a man who can 
neither read nor write; or, at all events, read badly and write 
worse ? If you answer, that the veterinary science ought to be 
practised by a man of liberal education, I should say the exam¬ 
iners have not done their duty; and although it would be invidi¬ 
ous in me to bring forward individual cases, yet I could furnish 
example upon example, of the grossest and most disgraceful ig¬ 
norance and insufficiency. I would further say, that the circum¬ 
stance of a veterinary school having existed in this country for 
seven-and-thirty years, and not one of us being permitted to sit 
among the examiners, is the greatest indignity that can be cast 
upon the profession. To imagine that this institution should 
have been carried on for thirty-seven years, and that there is not 
a man practising the veterinary art qualified to sit among the 
examiners, except Mr. Sewell, is a circumstance so disgraceful, 
that I am almost ashamed of the profession to which I belong. 
These lamentable facts, however, have all been stated again and 
ao-ain, and the subject has been completely exhausted. I am 
quite certain that the question before the meeting cannot remain 
long undisposed of. If the voice of the whole profession could 
be taken, there is hardly one (and I cannot imagine how there 
