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EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
education adopted at the colleges, the Council has decided 
that in future, no candidate shall receive a license to practise 
the veterinary art, unless he shows to the satisfaction of the 
examiners that he is familiar with those everyday duties 
which, in the course of his practice, will inevitably fall to 
his share, and in the due performance of which his repu- 
tation for skill and practical tact will in a great measure 
depend. 
Candidates who intend to present themselves for examina- 
tion at the termination of the present session, will not, perhaps, 
be required to submit themselves to this practical test, in addi- 
tion to the usual viva voce examination; nevertheless, without 
pretending to say what scheme the examination committee 
may recommend, we feel tolerably certain that we shall be 
doing good service to the student, by giving an outline of 
the method which may be adopted in carrying out the 
proposed test. Time, place, and duration of the exami- 
nation are matters of detail to which we shall presently 
refer. The candidate will, we presume, be taken to his 
patients — horse, ox, sheep, pig, or dog, any or all of them, 
as the case may be — and will be required to prove to the 
examiners that he understands how to proceed in the exam- 
ination of the animals for the purpose of ascertaining the 
nature of the malady, local or general, from which they may 
be suffering. For example, the student may be asked to 
take the number of the pulse, look at the teeth, examine 
the eyes, indicate by the finger the precise spot to be se- 
lected in trephining the frontal or maxillary sinuses ; he 
may also be expected to discover if splints, spavins, or ossi- 
fied cartilages exist ; to go through the routine of testing a 
horse's paces, for the purpose of detecting lameness, and 
deciding in which leg the defect is apparent ; he may be 
expected to approach a horse in the stall or box, in a proper 
manner ; take up the animal's feet, without alarming him, 
or getting himself into trouble ; and the examiner may 
require him to take an ox by the nose, and inspect his 
mouth ; or go through the performance of turning a sheep, 
a feat that requires more tact than physical force. There 
is a right and a wrong method in all kinds of work, and in 
missing the right way, the unpractical student inflicts wrong 
