48 
THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE PROFESSION. 
their conduct, we here thank them, in the name of every one who 
has the interests of veterinary science at heart. Our thanks are 
more cordial, because we know that, when the judge begins to 
act with salutary severity, he must take especial care that there 
is nothing wrong in his own tribunal—no violation of the rights 
of others—no neglect of duty—no insensibility to the welfare of 
those for whose benefit alone he presides—or even-handed justice 
will soon commend the ingredients of the bitter chalice to his 
own lips. 
We have much pleasure in adding, that the appearance and 
conduct of the students generally, who are more numerous than 
in any former year, afford a pledge of better, far better things. 
We look northward, and there, from the increased numbers and 
respectability of the pupils, and the talent and exertion of the 
professor, and the character of the instruction, co-extensive with 
the future wants of the students, we have reason to augur well as 
to future times. 
Although no veterinary lectures have, for a twelvemonth past, 
been delivered at the University of London, the connexion be¬ 
tween that noble institution and our art, so honourable and 
advantageous to us, is not broken. In the ensuing spring, the 
lecturer will have opportunity to shew that iil-health alone, and 
no lack of zeal, caused this long suspension of instruction there. 
Most important of all, is the feeling which is rapidly pervading 
every district, that the agriculturist may and ought to derive far 
greater benefit from our profession than he has hitherto been 
enabled to do—that our sheep, our cattle, unequalled in the 
world, should no longer be deemed unworthy of veterinary care, 
and strangely, infamously abandoned to those whose ignorance 
is equalled only by their brutality. This sentiment has been of 
late frequently expressed in the leading agricultural publications 
—it was echoed, in a way not to be misunderstood, at the last 
Smithfield meeting—it is adopted, as the writer of this has had 
occasion to see, by the most influential breeders in every part 
of the United Kingdom ; and the consequence is neither un¬ 
certain nor distant. 
Are there no dark shades in the picture ? —no causes of tem¬ 
porary retardation in our onward course? The consideration of 
this must be deferred to a future number. 
Y. 
