THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 515 
more than the usual audacity of the same class in Scotland, 
for here they do not hesitate to put up sign-boards and 
mass plates on their doors, with the apparently useless title 
of veterinary surgeon” emblazoned thereon. For ex¬ 
ample, in this town, within twenty-one miles of the metro¬ 
polis, one of the self-styled veterinary surgeons holds the 
appointment, from the Local Authority, of district inspector, 
and has received a pretty round sum for his services. It even 
crops out” occasionally in the pages of your Journal, as 
witnessed by the communication in the last number from, 
your correspondent “ X. Y.,” who aspires to instruct and 
suggest means for the education and elevation of a profession 
he does not belong to. In short, its proportions are gigantic, 
and daily on the increase, and if no steps are taken to 
stamp it out” by legislative measures, I doubt not but it 
will tell ere long on our Colleges; for who will care to throw 
away a few hundred pounds for an empty, unmeaning title, 
which any one may assume with impunity, and which it 
appears secures no rights or immunities whatever over the 
empiric. 
The law renders it penal for others than the recognised 
members to address the Bench ; in fact it is imperatively for¬ 
bidden. Is there any good reason why a similar rule should 
not apply to the veterinary profession, as it does in the sister 
science—at least of assuming the titles when so great inte¬ 
rests are at stake ? If the present charter he defective, as it 
seems to be, why not at once apply for powers to protect our 
rights and the public from injury, by a new Charter, which 
shall have that power ? Why hold meetings and discuss 
subjects of secondary importance to this ? It is certainly like 
beginning at the wrong end altogether, “ locking the door 
after the steed is stolen.” Let us first have a charter that 
will confer some powers or grant some privileges over the 
empiric, and then it will be time to raise the standard of 
education, when it can reasonably be expected that good men 
will be induced to enter, when some reasonable prospect can 
he held out to them of an advanced social position, or some¬ 
thing like remunerative employment. 
I am perfectly aware that some of the older members of the 
profession say ‘‘ that all depends on a man’s own tact and 
talent whether he rise above the empiric or sink to their level.” 
All this is very good, and very true ; hut I think it extremely 
unlikely that ever men of standing or education will find their 
way into the profession when they are exposed to competition 
with quacks, who are often preferred to the regularly educated 
man, even by the nobility ; and I am quite sure if the ninety- 
XLii. 36 
