EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
4 ]] 
conjectured, but it can never be determined. Under no 
circumstances can five per cent, of the members be got to¬ 
gether. Of the sixty or seventy veterinary surgeons who 
assemble on the first Monday in May, in Red Lion Square, 
seldom a tenth part expresses any opinion, and as Mr. Smith, 
of Norwich, pointed out at the last meeting, without a reso¬ 
lution it is impossible to discover what the feeling of the 
assembled members is in reference to the subjects submitted 
to them. 
Mr. Hunting attempted an innovation by proposing an 
amendment to the report; his intending seconder, however, 
did not, in the course of his remarks, formally second the 
proposition, and consequently it w'as not put from the chair, 
or we might have had to record the unprecedented circum¬ 
stance of the rejection of the annual report. 
The report, however, was adopted, and we are left as much 
as ever in the dark as to the feeling of the profession upon 
the subjects which were referred to as having been under the 
consideration of the Council. All we do know is, that pre¬ 
cisely the same points were discussed last year, and with 
exactly similar results ; and so it may be to the end of time, 
unless the members of the profession emerge from the 
state of apathy into which they have fallen, and take 
action to secure those much needed reforms which the 
Council admit their incapacity to accomplish. 
To censure the Council, however, for lack of energy would 
be absurd, for are we not told at every annual meeting that 
the representatives of the corporation have no power to in¬ 
terfere with education, or to institute preliminary examina¬ 
tions, or, in short, to do anything beyond the routine busi¬ 
ness of meeting in ordinary and discussing the very import¬ 
ant question what to do, without ever being able to decide 
how and when to do it ? 
If the Charter is really obstructive, instead of quoting its 
provisions against every suggested improvement, let it be 
consigned to the shelves on which the archives of the 
Institution are allowed to rest in undisturbed dust, and let 
another Charter be obtained which will allow the repre¬ 
sentatives of the corporation to do something more than 
