ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 447 
“ Mark Lane Express” has not, as yet, found room to give pub- 
licity to the following letter in answer to his latter remarks, in- 
tended as an answer to my former letter, I shall feel obliged by 
your finding space for its insertion, as also for the remarks con- 
tained in “ The Express.” The point in dispute I consider as one 
of the highest importance, not only to the Edinburgh Veterinary 
College, and the Board of Examiners connected therewith, but also 
to the healthy integrity of the Council of the Royal College of 
Veterinary Surgeons ; and as much importance is attached, in the 
recent report of the Council to the profession, to the protest made 
by the Professor at the Edinburgh Veterinary College against 
chemistry being TAUGHT in his class, independent of the remarks 
which I, in the subjoined letter, make on this subject, I beg to 
transmit you the report of the Chairman of a Veterinary Committee 
(J. Burn Murdoch, Esq.) appointed by the Highland and Agri- 
cultural Society, of Scotland, to advance the interests of the 
veterinary profession here, as to their estimate of the truth of this 
report. 
I remain, my dear Sir, your’s truly, 
Jas. Mercer, M.D., &c. 
Edinburgh, July 17, 1845. 
To Messrs. Percivall and Youatt. 
[From the “ Mark Lane Express,” 7th July, 1845.] 
In the “ Mark Lane Express” for June 2d, in offering a few 
remarks on the proposal for a distinct Charter, by the Highland 
Society and others, we expressed our belief, that at the examina- 
tions held at the Veterinary College, Edinburgh, 1844, scarcely 
any questions relating to chemistry, materia medica, and cattle 
pathology, were put to the pupils : this Dr. Mercer, one of the 
Examiners, has denied, and has given “ our gratuitous statement” 
(as he has been pleased to term it) a most unqualified contradic- 
tion. That we had good and sufficient ground for our assertion, 
the following extract from the report of the deputation who were 
present at the examination alluded to will abundantly testify : — 
“ There is no examination on chemistry , none on materia medica, 
none on physiology , none on the diseases of cattle, that deserved the 
name.” There were by far too many leading questions, and the 
examinations were very unequal and unsatisfactory. The report 
itself, from which this extract was taken, bears the signatures of 
Professor Spooner, Veterinary College, London ; Thos. Walton 
Mayer, Newcastle, Staffordshire ; E. N. Gabriel, London, Secre- 
tary to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. 
