342 



A HISTORY OF 



The next move was not made until 1883, when, 

 in conformity with a resolution of the Society, a com- 

 mittee was appointed to report to the Council as to the 

 most effectual means of founding an Irish college or 

 school of veterinary surgery and medicine, with in- 

 dependent powers of examining and of conferring 

 diplomas. The committee proceeded on the lines of 

 its predecessor of 1866, by preparing a curriculum, 

 and estimating the probable income and expenditure. 

 They showed that a deficit of about £800 a year 

 might be expected, while at least £5000 would have 

 to be spent on buildings. It was shown that the Royal 

 Veterinary College of London possessed by charter the 

 sole power of granting veterinary diplomas in the 

 United Kingdom, and that to attain the desired object 

 a body with independent power would have to be 

 incorporated in Ireland. The committee expressed the 

 opinion that a veterinary establishment, managed as a 

 perfectly independent body on a commercial basis, like 

 the Scottish institutions, would pay its way and be self 

 supporting. This would mean competition with 

 veterinary surgeons in Dublin, which of course the 

 Society could not undertake. The committee con- 

 cluded that the best thing the Society could do was 

 to assist a veterinary college (if one were started) by 

 grants in aid, such as were given to the veterinary 

 colleges of England and Scotland by the leading 

 agricultural society of each country. The report of 

 the committee was adopted by the Society in February 

 1884, and, though nothing further was done at the 

 time, the report formed the basis of the final step 

 taken ten years later. In 1894, the project was again 

 revived ; to get over the financial difficulty a com- 

 mittee of the Council recommended that a guarantee 

 fund should be raised, and that the Society should, in 



