118 NORTH OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
fessional conduct, deserves it. It is therefore the bounden 
duty of all members of the profession, who have the well¬ 
being of veterinary science at heart, to do all in their power 
as individuals to raise the profession to the position she has 
a right to occupy. This can only be done by showing to the 
public that we are really what we claim to be—thoroughly 
scientific men, willing and able to keep pace with all col¬ 
lateral branches of science with which our profession is so 
intimately connected. This alone will enable us to prove 
the worth of an educated veterinary surgeon over the 
farrier or the charlatan, who only excels him by the larger 
number of animals he kills. 
It is the idle drones in the profession who flatter 
themselves that, because they have managed to obtain 
the diploma of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, 
its possession alone will induce the public to entrust the 
treatment of valuable horses and cattle to their keeping, in 
preference to a non-graduated man. Woefully do they find 
out their error in practice, and cry aloud “ empiricism ! em¬ 
piricism is our ruin!” Yes, empiricism is their ruin, and 
will always be so unless they prove their superiority by 
practical results. This is only to be done by those who love 
their profession and possess great energy of mind, coupled 
with constant perseverance and an invincible determination 
to succeed. With these essential requisites to success, in 
every profession—in none more than our own—the empiric 
cannot continue to compete in the race with the well-trained 
understanding of the educated veterinarian, any more than 
the unlettered serf of Russia can do with the free and well- 
trained mind of the English mechanic, in producing those 
wonderful pieces of mechanism which we see daily brought 
into operation in commercial and agricultural pursuits. 
There are three important matters connected with our 
profession which I shall briefly bring before your notice. 
The first is the great need of a higher standard of education 
in the majority of its members. 
No one knows so well the immense disadvantage—I had 
almost said the irreparable disadvantage—which the unedu¬ 
cated or indifferently educated veterinarian labours under 
in almost every step he takes, as the man who unfortunately 
experiences the want of education himself. However labo¬ 
rious, however energetic, however persevering he may be, he 
thoroughly understands how impossible it is for him to bring 
before his view all the bearings of a case, so as to reason 
accurately and logically upon it, and at once deduce 
sound data upon which to act, either in the same Avay or to 
the same advantage, as the well-educated man. If this be so, 
