804 
PRESIDENTS BANQUET IN BIRMINGHAM. 
The feeling which our President then initiated soon resulted in the 
emancipation of veterinary education from fetters which had all but 
fatally paralysed the corporate life, by Royal Charter, given to the ve¬ 
terinary profession. I make this allusion solely as a matter of historical 
interest, for nothing is further from my intention than to revive the 
memory of struggles happily past. I, for one, feel that great and 
ennobling as is the pleasure experienced in contention for great 
principles, it must yield to the enjoyment of a spirit of conciliation, 
once the battle is over, and the object won. Nevertheless, dis¬ 
passionately and impartially, do the events of history require to be 
called to mind for present instruction and future guidance; and it is 
because the period and events to which I am now referring are full of 
interest to the body corporate of which, in common with yourselves, 
I have the honour of being a member, that I trace this retrospect, 
and take a glance at its causes and probable results. So long as the 
Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons obtained its candidates for 
membership from two schools, of which one headed a schism of 
the young profession, and the other pursued a scarcely less disas¬ 
trous plan of action, our Council was under such coercion, that in¬ 
dependent action was out of the question. That anomalous state of 
things ceased, once and for all, with the incorporation of the New 
Veterinary College of Edinburgh; for by that Royal Act the mono¬ 
poly of the schools was destroyed. You will, I am sure, gentlemen, 
pardon me in referring to the course adopted by my brother, 
Professor John Gamgee, at the critical period to which I am allud¬ 
ing. With the example before him of the old schools, and examin¬ 
ing their policy to the profession, he felt that it was high time a 
new path should be struck out. The difficulties seemed insur¬ 
mountable, and the temptation to avoid some of them was great, 
but he never swerved from the straight course in endeavouring to 
advance veterinary education, and to consolidate and foster the cor¬ 
porate interests of the profession. How far these objects have been 
attained, it is not for me to judge, but the words of the toast, and 
the presence amongst us of two distinguished members of the 
Scotch Board of Examiners, remind me that, at any rate, with 
the incorporation of the New Veterinary College, the great object 
was gained of establishing our corporate profession on the sound 
basis of a plurality of schools awakened to the pressing necessity 
of self-preservation by the healthy stimulus of unrestricted compe¬ 
tition. Nevertheless, it cannot be doubted that some at least of 
the professors continued to cherish the idea that the charter gives 
no power to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to interfere 
with veterinary education ; this is certainly true in the sense that 
the President and Council have no right of interference within the 
precincts of the existing schools, but it is equally true that our 
Boards of Examiners are unfettered in the exercise of their discre¬ 
tion as to the standard of competency to qualify for admission to 
membership, and as to the process by which it is to be tested. I 
am of opinion that when this latitude of examining power shall be 
duly understood, your Council and their specially appointed ex¬ 
amining officers, will powerfully stimulate veterinary education 
