ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 357 
first the Council determined what they considered the maxi- 
mum sum should be charged for examination ; a sum 
amounting to half of that paid for the pupil’s entire education. 
The governors of the Royal Veterinary College, as well as 
the authorities at Edinburgh, opposed that determination ; 
but they were told that a high rate of charge was necessary 
to keep up the respectability of the profession, and prevent 
the accession to its ranks of men wanting in education and 
standing in society. He thought, however, that no scientific 
body ought to take such a view of the question. The esti- 
mation in which a profession was held should depend, not 
upon the amount of money required to become a member of 
it, but upon that ability, moral standing, and general cha- 
racter, which alone could enable the aspirant to hold a posi- 
tion among his fellow-men, with honour to himself, and 
dignity to the calling to which he belonged. Still he was 
not of opinion that the money paid by the pupil in the aggre- 
gate was too high, but rather the reverse. He could have 
wished that the fee for education had been increased long ago, 
because it would not only have brought into the profession men 
holding a better position in life, but would have afforded the 
governors of the College an opportunity of augmenting to a 
greater extent even than has been done, the sources of edu- 
cation, and by that means exalting the profession. The 
governors of the Royal Veterinary College, finding that the 
Council were willing to yield to the wishes of the Scotch 
school, but (when the Scotch authorities did not respond to 
the suggestion) were determined still to mulct the London 
pupils in the whole of the exorbitant charge, were naturally 
indignant at being placed in such a position : and they said, 
“ If that be so, and if it be a fact that the Scotch pupils, not 
members of the body corporate, are admitted into Her 
Majesty’s service and the East India Company’s service, we 
will not submit to such a state of things ; and, therefore, if 
the fee be not reduced, we will form a court of examiners for 
ourselves, and leave the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons 
to shift for itself.” The Council then wisely, as he thought, 
determined to reduce the fee, and had thus satisfied the 
governors of alma mater . It was true they had reduced their 
means of obtaining funds, but they had placed themselves in 
a correct position, not only with reference to the London but 
also to the Scotch school, by having removed from the latter 
one cause which they assigned as a reason for not allowing 
their pupils to be examined by the Royal College of Veterinary 
Surgeons. They had also secured the support of the govern- 
ing body of the London school ; and he hoped that the una- 
