230 
ADJOURNED GENERAL MEETING OF 
very g rea ^ one > of sacrificing their laugh, and joke, and repartee. 
It is a confession which I acknowledge I did not anticipate, and 
which I could wish, for the sake of more parties than one, had 
not been made. I would, however, have been silent, had not 
the worthy Professor, in his ingenious advocacy of the necessity 
of keeping up the distinctions of rank, unfolded the veritable 
reason of this dislike. “ The veterinary surgeon is far inferior to 
the human surgeon;—we have not enjoyed the same expensive 
education,—we do not possess the same general knowledge,— 
we are not held in the same public estimation,—we are only 
junior brethren—mere children, compared with our elders, and, 
therefore, we ought not to dream of associating with our betters.” 
I unhesitatingly acknowledge the truth of the premises, but I 
indignantly repel the conclusion. We are but junior brothers, 
yet, with all our inferiority of education and acquirement, we are 
brothers; and brothers, senior and junior, meet at the same board 
and consult respecting their common interests. The veterinary 
and the human surgeon are, or may be, members of the same 
mess. There is a wide distinction of rank between the command¬ 
ing-officer and the subaltern, but they surround the same table, 
and sit on the same court-martial, and in many important con¬ 
cerns are brought into frequent and not unpleasant contact with 
each other; but we (for such is the argument, if it be good for 
any thing at all), on account of the distinction of rank , must not 
presume to aspire at filling the lowest seat at the examiners 7 
board.—Where is the distance throws us back thus far? What 
are the circumstances, operating in no other profession, in no 
other relation of life, which stamp on us this hateful degrada¬ 
tion ? The junior and the senior brother associate in many an 
office of affection, and the colonel and the cornet meet at the 
same board of business and of pleasure; but the veterinary 
surgeon must not associate with the medical examiner. In my 
own name, in the name of every practitioner, in the name of every 
future veterinary surgeon, I do protest against the stigma which 
may be indirectly, and directly too, affixed upon us by this 
exclusion. 
I do not, however, mean to oppose the resolution. So far as 
the education and competency of the student are concerned, 
and, thus far, the respectability of the profession, it matters little 
whether there be one blended or two separate examining commit¬ 
tees. I have, I can have, no wish to offend these gentlemen, or 
perseveringly to urge that which would be obnoxious to them. 
Respect and gratitude have been long associated in my mind, 
and in all our minds, with the recollection of them; but I could 
