256 ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
carrying out this duty within the precincts of the respective 
establishments, or at some other suitable place . ” 
Professor Spooner said the Council would be running after 
a “ Will o' the wisp,” if they expected to make fully efficient 
veterinary surgeons at twenty-one years of age. 
Mr. Fleming said that in 1862 he was present at the prac- 
tical examination in Edinburgh, and the candidates, as a 
rule, got through the work rapidly and well. It would not 
require half an hour to tell whether a horse was lame or no. 
Professor Spooner said he did not suppose the Council 
would place a horse before a student and ask for a general 
examination as to soundness, &c. 
Mr. Wilkinson : What can we leave out ? 
Professor Spooner said such a course would require a great 
many days for the examination. There would be sixty or 
seventy pupils to come up for their diplomas before Christmas. 
The President thought an examiner might form an opinion 
as to the student’s practical ability in half an hour. 
Mr. Wilkinson said three or four students might be exa- 
mined at the same time. 
Professor Spooner said, if a young man came to a school 
without any practical knowledge with regard to the manage- 
ment of horses, he could not acquire that practical knowledge 
at the school unless the present staff was increased three- or 
four-fold. He had always recommended that young men 
should be educated by members of the profession before 
going to College, but the majority of practitioners refused to 
lend a helping hand. When the professors were engaged in 
the College yard examining a horse, they could not be shouting 
out everything with regard to the animal, so that all the 
students might hear. In many cases, too, the professors did 
not say publicly what they thought of a horse, for fear of 
giving offence to those who brought it for examination. 
The President said, when the student is aware that he will 
have to pass a practical examination, he will strive to become 
familiar with his work, independently of his teaching in- 
side the College. As the examinations are now, it is not, 
however, a necessity that he should know his work. He 
himself was never without a pupil, and he knew several 
other veterinary surgeons who also took pupils. 
Mr. Fleming said it was not the intention of the Committee 
that the examinations should be very severe. 
Mr. Wilkinson observed that the Committee anxiously de- 
sired the co-operation of the authorities of the different 
schools, otherwise they could not do justice either to them- 
selves or to the pupils. 
