THE EDINBURGH VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
527 
of the classes, and that the Council had no right to demand that 
my pupils should produce certificates of attendance on, or that I 
should establish a class of chemistry, without the Council furnish- 
ing the means of doing so. It will, however, be seen by a letter 
from Dr. Wilson, and also in the Report of the Highland and Agri- 
cultural Society’s late general meeting, that I had taken every 
care to have my pupils properly instructed in that science. And 
I can prove that, on all occasions, I have recommended my pupils 
to study, not only that science, but natural philosophy also, which 
they have always had an opportunity of doing at a very moderate 
expense at the School of Arts. With regard to the examinations 
here of this year, I simply deny that they were in any way im- 
proved, but rather, on the contrary, the reverse. 
T, however, offered no opposition to any arrangement that the 
Examiners chose to make ; and if the examinations were, as is re- 
ported, not brought to the same degree of systematic regularity, it 
certainly was not my blame. Mr. Gabriel was in attendance ; and 
as it is stated that he had made himself master of the improved 
method, I ask why he did not take care that the examinations were 
brought to the same degree of regularity 1 “ The number exa- 
mined here this year was twenty ; of these seventeen passed and 
three were rejected.” I should not have thought it necessary to 
notice the above had it not been that it is evidently intended, by 
the remarks which follow, to make it appear that there had been a 
laxity in the former examinations ; because it is stated that “ this 
difference in the proportion was not owing to any falling off in the 
qualification of the pupils, who, as a body, were very superior to 
their predecessors, but to the much more stringent and extensive 
examinations they had to undergo.” But what is the difference in 
the proportion] Why, last year forty-five were examined, — forty- 
one passed and four were rejected ; this year twenty were exa- 
mined, — seventeen passed and three were rejected ; which shews 
that, by the alleged improvement in the examinations, the diffi- 
culty of passing has been increased to the extent of about 5 per cent., 
or, in other words, that those of this year were 5 per cent, better in- 
formed than those of last year. Thus, we have some data as to the 
qualifications of the students and the stringency of the examinations, 
and are enabled to measure the proportionate qualifications, not 
only of the pupils of one session with another, but, also, the pupils 
of one school with another. Now, as it is stated that at London 
last year, out of fifty-six examined forty-one passed and fifteen 
were rejected ; and that this year, of forty-one examined thirty- 
three passed and eight were rejected : from which it will be seen 
that, as last year there were 26 per cent, of the pupils rejected at 
