20 
TUITION IN OUR VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 
the admission of a patient, and the treatment should be re- 
corded by the clinical students when they go round with the 
professor, daily or whenever there might be any change. 
We also want an operation theatre sadly; at present per- 
haps not one out of fifty satisfactorily witnesses an operation. 
I cannot see anything very difficult in the construction of a 
place for this purpose, although I am told a difficulty exists. 
Every post-mortem should be demonstrated to the students as 
a class, and not left for them to fish out things for themselves. 
Finally, as regards the examinations, and this I think the 
most important of all. We pass a written examination to 
enter the college; and we ought to have written examinations 
substituted for the present viva voce preliminary and the final 
examination for diploma. The present system, I contend, is 
unfair in the extreme to the student. He is naturally at this 
period nervous and anxious, gives hurried replies, and, may 
be, is rusty on the subject put to him individually, although 
he probably could have answered the question put to the last 
student as well as, or even better than, he did. What is the 
consequence ? He is put back another session. 
Let our preliminary and final examinations be written replies 
to a set of questions dictated or printed, and the best man must 
win. Every one will have an equal chance, time to collect 
thought, recover nerve, and study well his answer before put- 
ting it upon paper. There are other benefits which will accrue 
from this : our professors will be able to continue their course 
of lectures, instead of having to break off for the examinations. 
Time will thus be gained by the remaining students, and the 
men themselves will come better prepared. 
If necessary, raise the entrance fee £5 5s. No one would 
begrudge this, if they knew they would reap the benefits which 
they now stand most in need of. 
Our profession has entered upon a new era as regards the 
examinations, and, as a consequence, we require more help in 
our studies. We do not attend the college simply to obtain 
the diploma, being already good sound veterinarians ; but as 
young men having only a smattering of practical knowledge, 
and eager to make ourselves proficient in our work, through 
the extra experience of those set over us, that we may be 
enabled in time to become ornaments of a profession which 
we acknowledge to be second to none. 
I hope these remarks will be taken in the spirit in which 
they are offered by those immediately concerned, and not as 
an outcry of dissatisfaction for what is already done ; but 
having heard that the present system is to be altered, 1 have 
felt myself justified in offering them. I am, &c. 
To the Editors of the 1 Veterinarian 
