vii ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS 79 



considerably exceeded the expenses of the comparatively slight 

 examination required from candidates, and the surplus, besides 

 defraying the current expenses of the Museum and Library, 

 was devoted to the erection of the present buildings, and the 

 acquisition of the freehold property and invested capital of the 

 College. It says much for the personal disinterestedness of 

 the eminent members of the surgical profession who have 

 constituted the Court of Examiners, and who until very lately 

 were practically the ruling body of the College, that they 

 fixed their own remuneration at so low a rate as to permit 

 an expenditure during the present century upon the purposes 

 just indicated, of a sum which cannot be estimated at less than 

 400,000. Now, owing to the more searching and practical 

 character of the examinations, the expenses of conducting 

 them have augmented to such an extent as to be scarcely 

 more than covered by the payments of the candidates ; and 

 but for the proceeds of the investments made under different 

 circumstances, the College would not have the means of 

 carrying on the scientific work it has undertaken. 



The various professorships and lectureships that are 

 attached to the College have grown up chiefly in consequence 

 of one of the conditions under which the Hunterian Collection 

 was entrusted to it by Government that a course of no less 

 than twenty-four lectures shall be delivered annually by some 

 member of the College upon comparative anatomy and other 

 subjects, illustrated by the preparations. Other lectureships 

 have been founded by private benefactions, but these are of 

 limited number, or^ on special subjects, and are intended, not 

 so much for the education of students, but rather as the means 

 of introducing new discoveries or ideas to members of the 

 profession and others interested in scientific pursuits, to all of 

 whom they are freely open without payment. 



Besides the museum, the College has added to its means of 

 benefiting its own members and the profession generally, a 

 library containing every important work and periodical upon 

 surgery, medicine, anatomy, and the collateral sciences. 



During the first six years after the collection came into 

 the possession of the College, it remained in the gallery in 

 Castle Street, which had been built by Hunter for its 



