823 
VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
Royal Veterinary College, 44th Session, 1879-80. 
The First General Meeting of the members of the Veterinary Medi¬ 
cal Association was held in the Lecture Theatre of the Eoyal Veterinary 
College, on Tuesday, 14th October, 1879, at 6.30 p.m. The President, 
Prof. Pritchard, occupied the chair. 
A general invitation for this meeting had been issued by order of the 
President to all students at the Royal Veterinary College. Fifty-three 
visitors responded to this. Twenty-three members, the President, and 
the Secretary also attended. 
The minutes of the last meeting of the Forty-third Session were read 
and received. 
The awards of the Session 1878-79 were then announced and dis¬ 
tributed. 
Messrs. F. C. Gooch, H. Redford, T. J. Rippon, A. S. Auger, E. H. 
Scott, E. E. Bennett, E. C. Cockram, were then proposed as tit persons 
to become members of the Association. 
The President announced the subjects for prize competitions for the 
coming session. He then officially intimated the nature of the agree¬ 
ment between the Council of the Association and the Governors of the 
College, whereby the library is now available for use by all students at 
the Royal Veterinary College. 
The Secretary then read his report of the proceedings of the Associa¬ 
tion during the Forty-third Session, as sanctioned by the Council. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen, —The objects of the Veterinary 
Medical Association are: 
1. Meeting together of persons connected with veterinary science for 
discussion of proposed subjects. 
2. Awarding prizes to student members for superior attainments. 
3. Formation of a library of reference and circulation. 
I believe we are in a position to congratulate ourselves that we have 
been thoroughly successful in carrying out these objects during the 43rd 
session, the proceedings of which I have now to bring before you. In 
all there have been twenty-two General Meetings of the Association 
during the session 1878—79, at each of which there has been an average 
attendance of about thirty “ persons connected with veterinary science,” 
members of the veterinary profession, students at the college, and 
visitors, professional and non-professional. The discussions have been 
varied, lively, and in many cases very original, and the “ drawing out ” 
of scientific ideas, the energy of argument, and tact of offence and defence 
displayed in these debates must have been highly beneficial to all of us 
who have attended the meetings. Such training is of great value to a 
veterinary surgeon. In few professions more than ours do men require 
to look more frequently under the surface to detect deceit and the 
cunning malevolence of ignorance ; and the juvenility of our profession 
necessitates that members of it be the better prepared to withstand 
such slights as members of older professions endeavour to inflict on them. 
The votaries of human medicine, the elder brothers of our science, are 
beginning to see that we are no longer in the confiding stage of child¬ 
hood, but are prepared to question her dictates, to look into matters for 
ourselves'; they begin to respect and sympathise with us accordingly. 
The lawyer pompously cross-questions his veterinary witness, browbeats, 
