140 ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
judicial to the best interests of the students if compelled to 
resort to a greater extent than at present to that system 
of cramming whereby they acquire a knowledge of the 
subjects taught them in the veterinary colleges during the 
two winter sessions of their attendance. 
Your Committee hope that the colleges may soon take the 
initiative in an extended curriculum of study, which will not 
only justify but demand additions to the list of subjects on 
which future practitioners of the veterinary art have to be 
examined by this College. 
Two of Mr. Ernes* propositions are not open to the objec- 
. tion of even apparently precipitating reform. The one is the 
written examination as adopted by the Royal College of Sur- 
geons and other institutions, which should be provided for at 
no very distant date. 
Students to be examined at the close of the present session 
might fairly urge that they "had been taken by surprise if 
they were required to undergo a written as well as an oral 
examination, but this would not hold good for another year. 
No such objection can hold good with reference to the 
examination of students by the side of the living subject, on 
which they are expected forthwith to practise the healing art. 
Your Committee is painfully aware of the fact that the 
Colleges and their students suffer in the eyes of the world 
from the complete lack of practical tact, manipulative dexte- 
rity, or quick-sightedness of many who seek to enter on 
their duties as veterinary surgeons so soon as they have 
received a diploma. 
It is, therefore, of vital importance that, with the co- 
operation of the teaching colleges, the Royal College of Veteri- 
nary Surgeons should at once institute a practical examina- 
tion of candidates for the diploma of the College. The vete- 
rinary section of the Board of Examiners should be directed 
to test the skill of each student in the handling and examina- 
tion of any sick or healthy animals that can be provided for 
this purpose, and opportunities will thus be afforded to ascer- 
tain with greater precision than is possible otherwise a 
student's knowledge of superficial anatomy and surgery. 
The means of securing animals, the methods of applying 
bandages, poultices, and fomentations, the situation of struc- 
tures involved in the most common operations, can, with 
other points, be made the subjects of adequate inquiries by 
the side of a patient in a manner at once satisfactory to both 
examiners and examined. 
Your Committee has, therefore, unanimously adopted the 
following resolution : 
