702 
PROCEEDINGS OF COUNCIL. 
Mr. Silvester , Mr. Dickens, and Mr. A. Cherry thought the 
motion was too important to be summarily disposed of, and 
that time should be allowed for mature deliberation on the 
part of all the members of the Council. 
Mr. Dickens would also remind the Council that this motion 
did not at all agree with one recently brought before them, 
which, if it had been carried, viz., the decrease of the pupils’ 
examination fee , would have placed their finances in a far less 
enviable position. 
Professor Morton said the College would be a gainer by the 
increase of the fee, if contemporaneously with it an alteration 
was made in the mode of conducting the examinations so that 
they might be held on two consecutive days, instead of four 
consecutive weeks, as at present. 
The Secretary said the increase of fee was totally out of the 
question in the present limited income of the College, and the 
inevitable demand, arising from their taking a residence, on 
the balance in hand, except in connection with the change 
alluded to by Professor Morton — a change which was im- 
peratively called for in order to remove the inconvenience 
very generally complained of, arising from the long intervals be- 
tween the examinations, detaining some pupils in town a month 
or six weeks after others. He was not very fond of holding up 
the system of the Scotch school as a pattern card, but he 
must confess that the manner in which he had seen the most 
eminent medical and surgical professors of the Scotch metro- 
polis give the greater part of an entire day or two without any 
fee whatever, the only return made them being an invitation 
to the annual dinner, had perfectly astonished him ; and when, 
on the other hand, the medical gentlemen of the London 
branch were called on to meet for two or three hours of an 
evening, with an ad libitum interregnum for tea and coffee, and 
a concluding fee of two guineas on each occasion, the contrast 
to his mind of the latter complaining of their fee, and the 
former working altogether without one, was, he must confess, 
anything but a favorable one. He differed from Professor 
Morton as to the medical portion of the branch being entitled 
to a larger fee than the veterinary, for while the latter took an 
equal share in the labours of the evening, their care, anxiety, 
and interest were very much greater. As a member of the 
College of Surgeons himself, he felt he could make this 
remark without the slightest suspicion of his for a moment 
undervaluing the medical portion of the Board. 
The motion was then postponed, at the request of Pro- 
fessor Morton, for further consideration. 
The House Committee reported that, finding the premises in 
