THE EDINBURGH VETERINARY COLLEGE. 52 1 
The report of the meeting of the Incorporation on the 8th of 
May, in your number for June, shews, that it was only in con- 
sequence of my insisting at that meeting that the proceedings of 
the Council should be made known, that we have got a Report, 
and you agree with me that the profession was entitled to one : 
but I regret that I cannot agree with you in opinion that “ the 
Report IS — what it ought to be — simply a narrative of the pro- 
ceedings of the Council from their first dawn to their last sitting 
and the ground upon which I disagree with you is, that the 
Council, instead of giving what you suppose a full and correct 
report, have given a garbled statement of their transactions — have 
suppressed “ a long correspondence” upon subjects connected with 
this College — have misrepresented others — and have stated, on 
some points, what is untrue. 
With respect to the examinations, you state that “ you feel that 
you are now at liberty to have your say upon the subject, although 
hitherto you have, on principle, held your peace.” Your article 
then goes on as if there was only one Board of Examiners, and 
that at London ; but, as the Board is divided into two sections, one 
of which examines here, I think it necessary to state, that the 
remarks you make are not applicable to the examinations which 
have at any time taken place here ; and I think it would have 
been but fair that you should have stated to which school your 
remarks applied ; instead of which, your whole article would lead 
those, not otherwise informed, to believe that there was only one 
school in existence. I wish it, therefore, to be explicitly stated 
what are the faults of this school or the examinations, if you have 
any, to complain of ; and I insist that there should be no ambi- 
guity on the subject. In the examinations here the object has 
always been to ascertain the “ kind” and “ quantum” of know- 
ledge possessed by the pupils ; and, as veterinary surgeons have 
always formed a portion of the Board of Examiners, the students’ 
knowledge of practice has always been tested ; and whatever 
may have been the case with the examiners in London, I will 
assert that the old Board of Examiners here were, in every 
respect, as efficient and respectable as the one appointed by the 
Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons; and as the examinations 
have been conducted in a hall connected with the College, they 
are, at least, free from the objection you allude to as being con- 
ducted in a tavern : nor are there any of the appurtenances wanting 
here to which you allude as being necessary to ensure the really 
practical examination of the students. 
With these preliminary remarks I now proceed to the “Report,” 
as published by you ; for although it would appear, by the “Mark 
Lane Express,” that a copy of the Report has been circulated 
VOL. xviii. 4 B 
