433 
EDITORS* REPLY TO MR. C. CLARK. 
Whether it has always been well conducted ;—whether the 
national object which its founders had in view has been steadily 
pursued ; or whether that object may not have been occasionally 
and unjustifiably, and most injuriously, sacrificed to private inte¬ 
rest, is another and a very important question, on which our 
opinions are well known, and have been freely stated. 
“ The shop of Messrs. Coleman and Sewell! !” No—it is not 
yet come to this—nor shall it; nor are there yet among us, south 
of the Tweed at least, schools at which “ a knowledge of our 
profession may be as well, or rather better, acquired under othei 
teachers than those of St. Pancrasand although, and galling 
is the recollection, we are, as Mr. Clark justly says, iC excluded 
by a special law from becoming subscribers to an establishment 
from which w r e sprung—dishonourably distinguished, proscribed, 
shut out from a privilege open to the knacker or the horse-stealer, 
and only denied to the veterinary surgeon,” we do not despair, 
nor are we dissatisfied with the signs of the times. 
The matter has come fairly before the public. It has made its 
impression, and where we could most of all wish it to be made. 
That impression is deep, permanent;—and the effect of it, 
beneficial to our profession, advantageous to the public, and 
making the Veterinary College, in truth, “ a national institution , 
is not far distant. 
The dissentions which have lately occurred among us have 
aided our cause. They have shewn us who would hurry us on 
to the adoption of measures that would terminate in the destruc¬ 
tion and not the reform of our school ;—they have distinguished 
the men who are content with, or, rather, glory in their degradation, 
and if wish for no alteration without the sanction of the powers 
that be,”—and they have brought to view a numerous united band, 
containing many, most of the names held in estimation by their 
brethren, steering the middle course, and pledged to defend the 
existence and the interest , but to reform the abuses , of the 
College. * 
Another grand point is gained, involving in its consequences 
almost all that we could wish. The language published by 
authority, thirty-six years ago, (vide Account, &c. p. (>) is for¬ 
mally recognized. “ It requires,” says that excellent summary, 
“ the sacrifice of as many years to become a skilful veterinarian, 
as to become a skilful physician. The acquisition of the science 
and the practice of each is a task sufficient to engage one man s 
life; and the contrary opinion is a portion of that ancient error, 
which, while medicine was regarded as the province of the learned 
and the few, supposed the veterinary art on a level with the most 
ordinary capacities.” Such was the avowed opinion ol the first 
