672 
ON VETERINARY REFORM. 
ing to do the other. With these sentiments I could almost aban¬ 
don the subject altogether, or leave the Veterinary College out of 
the question; but feeling that many and great causes are still 
operating against us, and that some of them have their origin 
within its walls, I shall make a few observations, not that I think 
them new or more powerful arguments than have been used, or 
that my writing “to stones will make them movable/’ (or which 
is just as likely, the governors ), but because they have shut the 
\ door of the council-room in our faces, and in every way trampled 
upon the best, and, indeed, the only judges of existing circum¬ 
stances ; and because I would not have a single number of your 
work published without telling them that the subject is not for¬ 
gotten, and that sooner or later reform will pervade every public 
institution. 
The Veterinary College, as at first constituted, was, perhaps, 
as perfect as it then could be, and reflects great credit on its 
founders; not so, there having been no increase of means for the 
acquirement and propagation of knowledge, by its present go¬ 
vernors (the funds having been ample); but as to the fact, that 
there is a falling off in some respects, I will not trust myself to 
speak. But supposing that it still is, as it was originally, in¬ 
tended for the advancement of science and the good of the pub¬ 
lic, and that it is not become, as some would have us believe, a 
private veterinary surgeon manufactory, and which, by the by, 
some words of their own tend to confirm; and that the governors 
have any sense of their duty,—can they be aware, that there is no 
means by which the profession, and sometimes pupils, can be¬ 
come acquainted with the increased knowledge of disease and 
improvements in practice, which must be taking place; or that 
in the lapse of nearly forty years there has no regular nosology 
or materia medica emanated from the institution ? and from where, 
I ask, can we expect them, if its professors have not been able, 
with their advantages , to perform the task ? Perhaps they have 
heard that “the diseases of horses are few and easily understood, 
and that we may carry all our medicines in our pockets,” but 
against which I must record my protest. Perhaps it will be attri¬ 
buted to want of intellect when I state, that after more than ten 
years’ close attention to practice, and some previous knowledge, 
I often meet with something new in the shape or nature of disease, 
and as often want something new in the way of medicine. With 
regard to the by no means favourable specimen of pharmacy 
exhibited of late # , they “ the governors ,” cannot be expected to 
* Your correspondent in criticising the Pharmacopoeia makes a strange 
blunder when he speaks of acids found in the intestines liberating caustic 
alkali, &c. &c. 
