THE VETERINARIAN, SEPTEMBER 1, 1862. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. —Cicero. 
ON THE EXAMINATION OF PRACTITIONERS. 
Although, as public journalists, we have given insertion 
to communications respecting the examination of veterinary 
practitioners, men who have received no scientific education, 
our readers are not therefore to infer that we are advocates 
for its adoption. Such a course of procedure would be to 
ignore the schools, stultify ourselves, and render nugatory all 
the good that we, as a profession, have been for many years 
endeavouring to obtain. The foundations which have been 
so laboriously laid would be ruthlessly uptorn, and we 
should soon go back again to the dark days of farriery, 
the fair regions of science being enveloped in the mists of 
pretension. Such must not be permitted to take place. 
We have no hesitation in saying that he alone can pass 
an examination as to his fitness to practise a scientific 
calling who has been scientifically educated. Princi¬ 
ples ever must be his guide. We do not, of course, 
mean to imply that there never was a self-taught scien¬ 
tific man; far from it. We are speaking generally, and 
as to the results which most likely would follow the 
examination of those who have never received collegiate 
education; for if some are now admitted as members of 
the profession, what is to prevent others following ? Would 
not this be unjust to those who have spent their time and 
money in the acquirement of knowledge, and passed the 
prescribed ordeal ? We have no doubt whatever that 
among practitioners are to be found many men of ster¬ 
ling worth and strict probity, and possessing those prac¬ 
tical abilities which have justly won for them the esteem 
and confidence of their employers. But this is not enough 
as far as the weal of the profession is concerned, and its 
advancement. Mere practice never yet developed a prin¬ 
ciple, and without correct foundations be laid, the super- 
