ANNUAL DINNER. 
383 
Mr. Brahj, in acknowledging the compliment, said he was 
happy, as Treasurer, to inform them that the finances of the 
College were in a more promising state than they had been 
in for some years. The duties of his office, he said, were 
very light; and he was only too happy if he was able to dis¬ 
charge them to the satisfaction of the members. 
The Fresident proposed the health of the Country Practi¬ 
tioners, to whom, he said, they were all indebted for the 
manner in which they upheld the dignity of the profession. 
The toast w^as coupled with the name of Mr. Burley. 
Mr. Burley, in acknowdedging the toast, said that there 
was no class of men more anxious or more zealous for the 
honour of the profession than the veterinary surgeons of 
the country. He contrasted the difficulty of obtaining vete¬ 
rinary instruction in his youthful days with the facilities at 
present afforded by the veterinary schools, and he expressed 
the gratitude he felt towards the medical profession for the 
assistance rendered by its members. He said there was no 
greater gratification experienced by the country practitioners 
than in coming to London once a year to do honour to* 
their instructors, to whom they were so deeply indebted. 
Mr. Broad proposed the health of the Vice Presidents and 
Stewards. 
Professor Brown acknowledged the toast. While thanking 
Dr. Sharpey for the manner in wdiich he had associated the 
two professions, he thought there w’as a great deal yet to be 
done before the members of the veterinary profession could 
claim a right to the position they really ought to occupy. 
He w^as sorry to say, but it was forced upon him by thirteen 
years’ experience as a teacher, that there was a lamentable 
w’ant of preliminary education in the students wffio presented 
themselves at the schools. He perfectly concurred in a 
statement he had heard made by a distinguised member of 
the profession, that there ought to be a preliminary exami¬ 
nation ; that it ought to be understood that a certain amount 
of general education was indispensable for every veterinary 
student. When that w^as the case there would be a great 
improvement in the body of veterinary surgeons. He urged 
the necessity of mutual forbearance on the part of the 
members of the tw’o professions, and referred to an instance 
in which a surgeon had expressed to him his conviction that 
the navicular bone of a horse could be extirpated, grounded 
upon the circumstance that the astragalus had been success¬ 
fully removed from the human subject. He advocated a 
reciprocity of modesty, and an abstinence from dogmatizing 
