386 ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
to induce the Board to institute a strict inquiry as to how far 
this defalcation had been attempted to be supplied, even had 
not the two influential and important bodies, namely, the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England and the Highland Agricultural 
Society of Scotland made this one of their prominent objects. The 
Highland Agricultural Society has already come forward to assist 
the Council in their endeavours to advance the education of the 
pupil on these important subjects, by giving a Silver Medal to the 
pupil who shall pass the best examination in Chemistry, and this 
too, be it remembered, in the face of a protest, from the Professor 
of the school they patronize and protect, against such a subject 
being taught in his class, several of its members also paying the 
greatest attention to the investigation of the pupil in the depart- 
ment of Cattle Pathology. The English Agricultural Society, 
again, has declared that this latter branch demands the most scruti- 
nizing test on the part of those empowered to qualify a student to 
become a member of the veterinary profession. 
The results that may be expected to accrue from the altered state 
of affairs brought about by the Charter, and from the system now 
adopted by the Board of Examiners, may, in some measure, be 
seen in a review of the examinations that have taken place in 
London and Edinburgh during the last few months. Up to 
March 25th the examinations were conducted on the same plan as 
those of the Board elected by the Royal Veterinary College of 
St. Pancras. Two or three gentlemen took each pupil and examined 
him on the different branches of his studies ; but it was found 
frequently to happen, either from the nature of the questions or the 
inaptitude of the pupil to answer, that one branch occupied an 
undue portion of time, to the unfair curtailment and too often neglect 
of those to follow, and a very unequal examination was the result. 
To remedy this evil, the President of the Royal College of Vete- 
rinary Surgeons, the Chairman of the Board of Examiners, and the 
Secretary, had a meeting at the Royal College of Surgeons to as- 
certain the plan there- acted on, and to decide how far it was ap- 
plicable to our own Board : the Report was favourable, and the 
Secretary was requested to make himself master of the system there 
adopted, which was declared both by Mr. Stanley, one of their 
Examiners and Chairman of our Board, and Mr. Balfour, their 
Secretary, to w r ork most admirably, and to be very superior to any 
before had recourse to. It was accordingly brought under the notice 
of our Board, at its meeting on the 15th of May, and is as follows: — • 
instead of each pupil appearing before the whole Board at once, 
the Board is distributed at four tables, one devoted to chemistry, a 
second to anatomy and physiology, a third to the pathology of the 
horse, and the fourth to cattle pathology. Each pupil is examined 
