ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 387 
for a quarter of an hour at each table, thus having to appear in 
rotation before the whole of the Examiners, and to go through a 
well-divided examination of one hour. 
Owing, however, to some opposition from the Professors and 
Teachers of the Royal Veterinary College of St. Pancras, this plan 
was only partially carried out, three tables being substituted for 
four, and three quarters of an hour for the hour’s examination. So 
well, however, did even this defective adoption of the plan work, 
that both the Examiners and the examined, declared it a very great 
improvement on the old system ; and, as a consequence, the entire 
plan was brought into operation at the meeting of the Board on the 
21st of May, after some further slight attempts at opposition from 
the Lecturers at the Veterinary College of St. Pancras, and the 
result was most happy. Every pupil underwent an equal and 
searching examination on every branch of his education : chemistry 
and cattle pathology received their due share of consideration, and 
must, consequently, in future be considered important parts of the 
curriculum of education. Every member of the Board engaged was 
satisfied and delighted with the result, and every pupil who ap- 
peared before it acknowledged its efficiency and entire freedom 
from restraint or annoyance. The number of students already ex- 
amined this year is forty-one ; of whom thirty-three were passed 
and eight rejected. 
The examinations at Edinburgh of this year, although not 
brought to the same degree of systematic regularity, were very 
considerably improved. The same principle was acted on as in 
London, one Examiner taking each candidate on one of the before- 
named branches of education. The number examined was twenty ; 
of these, seventeen were passed and three rejected. This difference, 
however, in the proportion to last year was not owing to any 
falling off in the qualifications of the pupils, who, as a body, were 
very superior to their predecessors, but to the much more stringent 
and extensive course of examination they had to undergo. 
Your Council, therefore, rely with the greatest confidence on the 
Board of Examiners, well knowing that their best exertions and 
undivided attention will be given to the ascertaining the qualifica- 
tions of the student, thereby rendering your diploma a valuable and 
efficient guarantee for the capability of its holder ; to the cautious 
but firm rejection of the candidate who from carelessness, inatten- 
tion, or incapacity, shall not have acquired those attainments they 
consider so essential to his future well-doing; and to the keeping 
pace in their examinations with the onward progress of science and 
practical information. 
In conclusion, the Council beg to express to the members gene- 
rally their satisfaction at the results already derived from the 
Charter: they feel it their duty to endeavour, by every means at 
