78 THE APPOINTMENT OP VETERINARY PROFESSORS. 
chance against the younker fresh from school,” although his in¬ 
trinsic and serviceable knowledge would admit of no comparison 
with the acquirements of the tyro ; and yet (seemingly paradoxical 
enough) such scholastic learning forms the basis of all that age 
and experience can boast of. I also can feel with you, that “the 
man possessed of high acquirements could rarely or never be in¬ 
duced to hazard in such a contest his reputation, which it has cost 
him the labour of years to acquire.’ 7 
And having thus politely assented to these two propositions of 
yours, I trust you will not be so ungiateful as to turn your back 
upon one I am now going to make, which is this:—that unless 
you can devise some safe?' mode of election, you had better (even 
with its confessed objections) adopt this French plan. 
Let us see how we English (who are so fond of picking holes in 
our neighbours’ coats) ourselves proceed in such concerns. Most 
of our public medical lecturers, though not in public service or 
pay as such, become so ex officio, by virtue of their office or rather 
function, as surgeons or physicians to public hospitals, dispen¬ 
saries, See., not necessarily but implicitly, in consequence of the 
advantages they possess to render them teachers, and of the supe¬ 
rior degree of public confidence and estimation with which they 
are generally in such situations honoured. 
And now for the election of these hospital and dispensary sur¬ 
geons and physicians—how is this conducted ? By a majority of 
votes, which votes are the property of the subscribers or members, 
the upholders and ;supporters, in fact, of the institution. And 
pray who are these subscribers or members ? They are lords and 
ladies, tinkers and tailors, and the “ Lord knows who;” in a 
word, they are the public. 
i\ T ow r , then, we come to the point. You say, “ the best test of 
qualification is the opinion of his brother-practitioners and of his 
pupils, if he have any: their judgment, and particularly that of the 
latter, is seldom erroneous .” Agreed. Would it not be a prefer¬ 
able plan, then, that hospital surgeons and physicians should be 
created such from their talents and abilities as lecturers and 
teachers, and not become lecturers and teachers because they hap¬ 
pen to be hospital surgeons ? 
What affords a medical man the best chance of succeeding in 
an election for an hospital surgeoncy ? Is it talent, or professional 
abilities, or acquirements ? Or is it interest of every or any other 
kind but that which is due to the candidate from his professional 
fitness for the vacant office ? Answer this, ye metropolitan citi¬ 
zens ; and you likewise, ye great men of the west, answer; is it 
a man’s own worthiness and worthness that ye inquire into w 7 hen 
he comes to “ solicit your vote and interest;” or is it not some 
