ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 503 
Board of Examiners should be directed to test the skill of 
each student in the handling and examination of sick or 
healthy animals that can be provided for this purpose, as 
opportunities "will thus be afforded to ascertain, with greater 
precision than otherwise, the student’s knowledge of super- 
ficial anatomy and surgery. The means of securing animals ; 
the methods of applying bandages, poultices, and fomenta- 
tions; the situation of structures involved in most of the 
common operations, can, with other points, be made the sub- 
jects of adequate inquiry by the side of a patient in a manner 
at once satisfactory to both the examiner and the examined. 
Your committee has, therefore, unanimously adopted the 
following resolution : — 
“ That after mature deliberation the committee report to 
the Council that it is considered absolutely necessary that a 
practical examination be instituted forthwith.” 
The Council had now to consider the mode in which the 
practical examination was to be carried out. It was decided 
that the committee should frame the regulations in detail for 
their guidance. 
A special meeting was then convened for that purpose. 
The Examination Inquiry Committee, in accordance with the 
wishes of the Council, carefully considered the best means to 
be adopted to give effect to the proposal “ that candidates for 
the diploma be tested as to their practical qualifications upon 
the living subjects.” 
The programme drawn up may be said to include : 
1st. — Examiners, 
This part may at once be disposed of, inasmuch as there 
are six members of the Board of Examiners for each section 
who will be able to perform this duty. 
2nd. — Time of Examination. 
This should be fixed on, so as to be followed by the oral 
examination; that is, the first twelve should undergo the 
practical examination either the previous day or during the 
early part of that on which the oral one takes place. 
3rd. — The Nature of the Examination. 
It must of necessity be left to the discretion of the examiners 
as to the various tests which they will resort to. The exami- 
nation will be in a great measure clinical, technical, and 
manipulative, and should especially include the “ age and 
soundness ” of the horse, ox, sheep, and other domesticated 
animals. 
