344 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
with. On the contrary, we are content to receive for pub¬ 
lication the most elaborate reports 'which the committee of 
revision may think fit to send us; convinced, as we are, 
that nothing which is really important in the observations of 
members of council should be withheld. 
There are, however, two sides to this as to every other 
question, and recent events remind us of a source of danger 
even in the seemingly indifferent proceeding of extending 
the reports of discussions which take place at the Royal 
College of Veterinary Surgeons some five or six times a 
year. It has happened on several occasions during a debate 
that a member has spoken in strong terms of the defects 
of some system, alluding to no particular individual, and 
possibly not thinking of any. The bolt, shot at a venture, has 
more than once hit those for whom it 'was not intended, 
and the result has been personal complaints and explana¬ 
tions, all in an amicable and pleasant way, as must of 
necessity be the case among gentlemen collected together in 
one room, and combined for a common object, but never¬ 
theless not of a kind to promote freedom of discussion, or 
to foster personal friendships. 
Perhaps the members of the veterinary profession are not 
more apt to take offence than other persons, but whether 
they are or are not, there is this great difference in circum¬ 
stances which affect them, and those which relate to other 
constituencies. Professional questions like those discussed 
at the council meetings of the College have an interest, 
often a keen one, for every member of the body corporate, 
while questions of public interest are commonly questions 
about which the public does not concern itself the least, 
and in reference to which anybody may be severe or funny 
or even dreary without exciting the ire of the public; such 
is not the case with the subjects on which the council of 
the College has to deliberate. We can quite understand 
that Mr. Huiit expressed the feeling of the profession 
exactly when he said it was difficult for him to convey an 
idea of the amount of anxiety manifested by veterinary 
surgeons in the country to peruse the reports published, in 
order that they might see who spoke for the good and who 
