142 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT- OF THE VETERINARY DEPARTMENT OF 



nothing could be heard either of the questions put or the 

 answers given, that three or four students were under examina- 

 tion at the same time, and therefore it was impossible to judge 

 of the relative merits of the several students, as was formerly, 

 done. Not wishing to trust his own judgment in this matter^ 

 however, he had applied to the Chairman of the Board of 

 Examiners of the last and of the present year (Dr Mercer, 

 Edinburgh, and Mr Browu, V.S., 3d iJragoon Guards) upon the 

 subject, and had received answers from both these gentlemen 

 condemnatory of the present system, and approving of the plan 

 of examinations formerly pursued, wlien these examinations 

 proceeded under the auspices of the Directors of the Highland 

 Society. He was informed, however, by Professor Dick, that 

 the College this year had been attended by upwards of eighty 

 pupils, forty-two of whom were Scotch, twenty-two Enghsh, ten 

 Irish, three from the Cape of Good Hope, one from Australia, 

 and one from St Petersburg, and that at the examinations in 

 April sixteen had passed trial and obtained diplomas. In 

 reference to those students from foreign countries, which the 

 just celebrity of the Edinburgh College had attracted to its 

 classes, Mr Burn Murdoch mentioned that one of the effects 

 of the restrictions imposed upon the curriculum of study by the 

 Council under the present charter would be to prevent any one 

 of them obtaining a diploma, for by them it was enacted that 

 no student should be received on trial who had not served three 

 years' apprenticeship to a regular veterinary surgeon. 



Twcnty-jifth Session, 1847-48. 



After fully considering the statement made by the Convener 

 to the General Meeting of the Society in June 1847, a petition 

 from the students attending the College, and a letter from 

 Professor Dick, all relative to the subject, it was resolved, 

 while there was no desire or intention of interfering in any 

 way with the examination conducted by the Council of the 

 Royal College, to reconstitute the Society's Board of Examiners 

 for the purpose of giving those students precluded from appear- 

 ing before the Board of the Council and any others attending 

 the College, an opportunity of being examined in their know- 

 ledge and proficiency of veterinary science, and of receiving 

 certificates of such proficiency as the Examiners may judge 

 the candidates entitled to. 



The value attached to the certificates formerly granted by 

 the Society's Board of Examiners was well known to the 

 profession and appreciated by the pubhc, and it was believed 

 that some who might obtain the diploma of the Eoyal College 

 would also apply for examination to the Society's Board, in 



