640 ON THE APPRENTICESHIP CLAUSE. 
sion to college simply to ability to read and write ; and so, down 
to the very time we are writing, has stood the test for entrance 
into the veterinary profession. It is true, such a standard of qua- 
lification has since been found so wofully low, that, of late years 
perhaps, it has been in effect next to a dead letter. Rarely, we 
should hope, in our time has it been requisite to call the qualifica- 
tion into question. We do remember, to be sure, having had sent 
us — as extracts from the note-book of a veterinary pupil — “ Yiteels 
it gets micks suliver parses over the base of the tongue into the 
pharicks thats contracts into ophesophicks into the stomach:” 
this, however, betrays more a want of knowledge of the Latin than 
of the English language, a remark that brings into our mind rather 
an amusing colloquy at which we happened to be present, be- 
tween our late Professor (Coleman) and a college pupil from 
Yorkshire. 
SCENE. — An apartment in the Professor's house. 
Enter Yorkshire pupil ; the Professor sitting at table with some 
friends. 
Yorkshire pupil (habited in velveteen jacket, corduroy small- 
clothes, and laced boots). — Beg pardon, zir! but had rather go 
back home. 
Professor. — Go home, my good fellow! — Why] 
Yorkshire pupil. — ’Cause as how, zir, I do’a’nt know Lottin. 
Professor (laughing.) — Know Latin , my good fellow ! — You 
know Latin enough. 
Yorkshire pupil. — I had rather go home, zir ; and be come to ax 
yer if yer’d gi’ me back hafe my money 1 
Prof. — Well, my good fellow! if you have made your mind up 
to go home, I suppose you must go. (Half the admission fee, we 
believe, was returned). 
The very constitution of the by-laws of the Royal College of 
Veterinar} r Surgeons clearly demonstrates, that the chief object 
held in view by those who framed them was to improve the con- 
dition of the candidate for membership. They (the by-laws) seek 
to raise the standard of qualification in two ways : they demand a 
better instructed candidate for examination, and they make the test 
of examination more searching and satisfactory. In furtherance 
