THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
69 
and of more recent and less popular treatises it does not possess a 
single copy. It contains, however, a few valuable editions of the 
elder veterinarians, but of these by no means a complete collection. 
I inquired the object for which the library had been established, 
and was politely informed that it was instituted to afford the 
student and the practitioner a ready means of study and of 
reference. The practitioner, however, I was told, very seldom 
consulted it ; and I cannot imagine what benefit the pupil desirous 
of learning the latest views and newest modes of treatment can 
derive from the privilege he enjoys of reading the works of ex- 
ploded authors. 
Having seen the library, I requested to be shewn the “ reading- 
room.” The answer I received was, “No such place existed.” 
A library without a reading-room is a head without a body. At 
other and regularly constituted colleges the pupils profitably occupy 
the spare time between the lectures by consulting the various 
authorities to which the Professor may have referred, and thereby 
they act as a salutary check upon their preceptor, while they im- 
press their memories and strengthen their understandings. It is 
much to be regretted that at the Saint Pancras Institution a similar 
course is impossible. Every book that is inspected must be taken 
home, and brought back again to the librarian before a second can be 
opened. By this regulation, were the works all modern and well- 
chosen, the library would be rendered almost useless, as the facili- 
ties for consulting the numerous authors it is most imperative to 
look into before the whole or the precise information can be ob- 
tained upon the nice points of anatomy, physiology and pathology, 
surgery, practice, and chemistry, are denied. 
The non-existence of a reading-room made me curious to learn 
where the students waited the commencement of the lecture, or 
how they occupied their time between the different discourses. 
“ They could walk about the stables, or remain in the yard. 
There was no room of any description appropriated to their use.” 
The truth of the assertion was exemplified. In the archway 
many of the pupils were crowded round an old man, who, to avoid 
the wind, which was blowing coldly that morning, had passed the 
wicket, and was crouching behind the closed doors of the entrance. 
This old man had a basket at his feet, in which were oranges and 
nuts ; and the young gentlemen surrounding him were striving to 
find employment for their leisure by listlessly consuming the pur- 
chases they had made, while others were seeking excitement in 
petty gambling, and a variety of idle, low, or dangerous amuse- 
ments. The whole scene was one of painful vapidity. 
“ Surely,” said I, “these young gentlemen, during the wet and 
cold of the winter season, require some better shelter, fori know 
VOL. XIX. L 
