•90 VETEKINARY-MEETINGS AND TRANSACTIONS. 
ought to be added to the board of examiners?—Do you 
regard it as a matter of expediency, and of justice, and of 
common sense ?’^ We will venture to predict what the answer 
will be. The answer has been given. At a meeting at which 
Mr. Coleman himself presided, there was not a dissentient voice 
on the question; and, in the name of the profession, a memorial 
was presented to this effect, signed by a committee appointed 
for the purpose, consisting of Messrs. Cherry, John Field, jun., 
W. J. Goodwin, Henderson, Langvvorthy, John and W. Percivall, 
and James and T. Turner. 
The memorial was rejected, and, a twelvemonth afterwards. 
Sir Astley Cooper asserted in the chair which he this year 
occupied, That the present examining committee is the best 
constituted that can possibly be devised,^’ and this contrary to 
the declared opinion of the metropolitan members of the pro¬ 
fession, and the universal feeling of the country practitioners'^. 
Now, wdth a full consciousness of Sir Astley’s worth, pro¬ 
fessional and private, we have felt from the date of that memo¬ 
rable assertion, that it is not quite in good taste to place the 
declared opponent of the wishes of the whole profession at the 
head of such a meeting: and that it is, and somewhat unfairly, 
extorting from the students, for the purpose of effect, a seeming 
approbation of that against which they dare not at present say a 
word. Well! Sir Astley Cooper was in the chair, and, notwith¬ 
standing what we have said, we honour the feeling of unalterable 
friendship which induced him to fill it. He w^as in one of his 
happiest veins, and he exerted himself to make, and he succeeded 
in making, every one about him happy. 
He gave The King,”—“ The Queen,”—The Duke of 
Cambridge,”—"‘The Royal Family,”—“The East-India Com¬ 
pany.” This was to us a new toast, but, as the chairman ex¬ 
plained it, a very proper one, for many of our young vets found 
a comfortable berth in their service. 
Mr. Sew^elljthe medical officer of the society, returned thanks. 
He referred, and most justly, to the respectability and talent of 
the veterinary officers appointed to the different regiments of 
the company (the pages of The Veterinarian will bear 
testimony to this. The names of Moorcroft, of years gone by, 
* Mr. Hallen’s testimony (a most honourable man and a friend of 
Mr. Coleman arid Mr. Sewell) is decisive on this point:—“1 am in the 
habit of asscoialing with several country-practitioners, in extensive prac¬ 
tice, and a credit to their profession ; I have asked them, ‘Do you know 
what is going on in London ? They are going to appoint a veterinary ex¬ 
amining committee/ ‘ I am very glad of it,' was the uniform reply; ‘ it is 
what has long been wanted, but I hope they will not disgust the old com¬ 
mittee’ This is the universal feeling'' — Veterinarian, vol. ii, p. 312. 
