584 
UNQUALIFIED PRACTICE. 
prevent this poaching upon the property of the qualified practi¬ 
tioner, this disgrace of the veterinary profession, and probable 
injury of the property of his majesty’s subjects ? 
A few years ago it was the practice of the examining committee 
to grant diplomas to young men who had not more “ considerable 
experience at the Veterinary College ” than Mr. J. N., and who 
had not even his previous advantages—mercers, tailors, porters, 
and mutton-pie makers. These men came uninformed, unin¬ 
structed : we heard one of them ask which was a horse’s knee; 
but in four months they returned with a diploma, signed, strangely 
signed, by some very great men, certifying that, by some myste¬ 
rious process, differing from every acknowledged mode of mental 
illumination, some unaccountable witchery, equalled only by the 
delusion which could induce such men to afiix their signature to 
such a paper, these nondescripts had become “ qualified to prac¬ 
tise the veterinary art.” 
Common sense, however, and every day’s experience affirmed 
that these men were and must be manifestly incompetent. The 
profession was degraded by their incompetency, and the low esti¬ 
mation in which it is held is mainly to be attributed to the igno¬ 
rance and misconduct of these men, far too numerous. This farce 
of “ veterinary surgeon making,” as an old contemporary of ours 
used to call it, was carried to such an extent that it was not only 
indignantly denounced by the veterinary press, but even the 
u pro-collegiates” could no longer stand it; and at that disgrace¬ 
fully memorable assembly of July 22d, 1829, the very men who 
declared that the present veterinary examining committee was all 
that it ought to be, and could not be improved, resolved, with 
only one Aa//"-dissentient voice, that “ students having occasion¬ 
ally passed their examinations without seeing sufficient of the 
college practice, the late resolution recommended by the medical 
committee of examiners, and adopted by the governors, to compel 
veterinary students to remain at the college twelve months before 
they be permitted to be examined, will be beneficial to the public, 
the veterinary profession, and the student; and this meeting begs 
leave respectively to recommend to the governors, that those pupils 
who have not been previously educated to the medical profession. 
