418 
REPORT OP ANNUAL MEETING. 
think it would be very difficult to separate the trade of farrier 
from the profession of veterinary surgeon. I do not cease to 
regret th£ objectionable nature of the union, but under 
present circumstances it appears to me to be almost indis¬ 
pensable. If I might trespass a little further, I would say 
that while the Council is working for the benefit of the 
profession, there is yet a great deal to be done by the pro¬ 
fession itself. It seems a sort of reproach that, considering 
the number of members we have in London, there should not 
be something in the shape of a central society of veterinary 
surgeons. In Leeds there is a society, and in several of the 
large towns of the kingdom; and I have seen a report from a 
society in Glasgow, apparently in a flourishing state. I 
remember a year or two ago this subject was discussed 
among the veterinarians in London, and the matter was 
taken up so warmly in Glasgow that they wrote to us for 
our rules, and founded a society before we even thought of 
founding one here. I hope before long we may be able to 
congratulate the veterinary profession upon the existence of 
a metropolitan veterinary society. 
Professor Gamgee .—Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I quite 
feel with Mr. Brown that the objection he makes to the sen¬ 
tence in the report is well founded. It struck me on reading 
it that a word or two might have been introduced to modify 
that which may shock the eyes and ears of some persons. My 
object in rising is to draw attention to a matter of serious 
moment. Several years since, I believe I was the first to 
show that the number of veterinary surgeons in this country 
was quite inadequate. I was constantly addressed by mem¬ 
bers of my own profession in different parts of the country 
as to what would become of the many veterinarians qualified 
every year. “ What are you going to do with them? Fifty 
every year from London, fifty from Edinburgh—the country 
will soon be overrun with veterinary surgeons.” Instead of 
the country being overrun, we find that there are still wide 
tracks of it without veterinary surgeons. What I showed 
several years back has been demonstrated by the statistics 
collected through this College, namely, that empiricism has 
flourished to an extent that we could scarcely have expected, 
considering the progress of veterinary education during the 
last twenty or thirty years. It is my impression that one 
great cause of this scantiness of veterinary surgeons over 
the country is that in districts where they are really most 
wanted, they cannot, for a number of reasons that I need 
not at the present moment assign, obtain a proper livelihood. 
The way undoubtedly to strengthen the position of the pro- 
