410 LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
others beside Scotchmen are fond o’ siller. In order to prevent 
any mercenary motive from influencing the judgment of the 
examiner, it is now proposed, and I may say agreed to, that the 
examination shall be conducted by an independent Board entirely 
unconnected with any of the schools, and whose verdict shall be 
final for twelve months ; that is, the candidate for entrance rejected 
at the board of one college shall not be eligible to go before the 
examining board of any other college, or enter as a pupil till after 
the expiration of twelve months. 
The examination will consist simply of matters which every per- 
son ought to know, whether they are intended for the veterinary 
profession or not, so that no hardship will be imposed on those who 
apply for admission to our ranks as recruits, — reading, writing, 
English grammar, and arithmetic ; a very simple affair no doubt 
many of you think, and wonder why it was not adopted long ago. 
But simple and insignificant as it may appear it has taken twenty-five 
years to accomplish, and we ought to congratulate ourselves on its 
accomplishment, knowing well that unless we keep advancing step 
by step, by regular or irregular intervals, we can never reach the 
end of our journey or the pedestal of perfection. 
With the studies of the pupil in the colleges we have no right to 
interfere ; neither do we wish to do so if proper teachers are 
appointed, and proper means adopted to enforce the fulfilment of 
their respective duties. Of late murmurs have been heard, not loud 
but deep. 
While on the subject of education let me say that I fully agree 
— not simply in matters relating to the profession — with those 
who say that we want enlarged education ; having felt the 
want personally I can speak from experience, and hope and pray 
that the future generations of Veterinary Surgeons may be better 
educated than some of their forefathers have been — not simply in 
that which constitutes the gentleman, but a happy combination of 
the two, to form at once the gentleman and the practical veterinary 
surgeon, to teach him to read, to reason, to think, to practice. 
It is absurd to expect a man to reason correctly if he has not 
been taught the use of reason ; it is eqnally absurd to speak of a 
man as being thoroughly acquainted with his profession, and, as his 
diploma states, “fully qualified to practise the art and science of 
veterinary surgery and medicine,” while at the same time he knows 
not the rudiments of practice, and it may yet become a fair question 
for the consideration of these societies, whether or not it would be 
advisable to establish special schools for the preparation of young 
men preparatory to their attendance at college. 
This leads me naturally to speak of the next great step in the 
advancement of the profession — the practical examination. The 
Council, to whom all matters relating to the examination of the pupil 
belong, have resolved that in future no pupil shall be admitted to the 
ranks of the profession until he has undergone a practical examina- 
tion, and satisfied the examiners that he is what he professes to be, 
fully qualified to practise. 
