THE TITLE OF VETERINARY SURGEON. 
561 
eludes his communication by calling the serious attention of 
the Members of the Council of the Royal College of Veterinary 
Surgeons to the subject; and you, in language less persua¬ 
sive but more forcible than usual, somewhat censure that 
body, and charge them with party-feeling for the purpose of 
carrying out certain views. I, as one having the honour of 
a seat at that board, and being tolerably constant in attend¬ 
ance at its meetings, must remark that I have never witnessed 
such a course of procedure. The members thereof may and 
do differ at times in opinion, as to the best mode of serving 
their constituents, but I had hoped that individually and 
collectively they have only had one object in view, namely, 
the welfare and onward progress of the profession. 
None are more convinced than yourselves that ours is an 
apathetic profession; one always grumbling, never united, 
and the majority never troubling themselves at all about pro¬ 
fessional progress. Many, after leaving their “ alma mater, 5 ’ 
never enter again within her walls, and even some, who have 
been elected tothe honours of the council,have nevermade their 
appearance at any of its meetings. Can such parties expect 
the council to do everything? There are those to be found 
who are always at their post, never tiring, setting even dis¬ 
tance at defiance, and sacrificing their valuable time to the 
performance of their duties. A brilliant example of this we 
have in our present very excellent president, who, I trust, 
will be as well supported during his official year as his devo¬ 
tion to our cause entitles him to be. 
What can be a greater source of annoyance than that of a 
young man choosing our profession, spending his time, his 
talents, and his money, in obtaining a competent knowledge 
of its principles, in the fond hope, when found proficient, of 
settling himself in some favoured locality selected by his 
friends, to find himself forestalled by an individual arrogating 
to himself the title of “ Veterinary Surgeon ?” One who has 
never even entered a veterinary school, and whose sole pre¬ 
tensions to any acquaintance with the profession arises from 
his having, perhaps, been groom to some man of distinction ; 
or he may have ridden for a couple of seasons the second 
horse to a master of fox-hounds. There are few localities 
where such easy made veterinarians do not exist. A case 
in proof occurs to me while I am writing, of one whom 
I knew in his early manhood as a gamekeeper; next he be¬ 
came a castrator; and now he mounts a brass plate, of no 
modest dimensions, with “ Veterinary Surgeon” on it, in the 
leading street of an important agricultural town. 
One of our worthy ex-presidents, Mr. Jas. Turner, has very 
xxxii. 74 
