636 EDUCATION OF THE VETERINARY SURGEON. 
I believe it is a fundamental rule with every other pro- 
fession to admit none to its practice who are not qualified 
by a liberal education to rank with gentlemen, and do honour 
to the profession they wish to enter ; and their capacity, in 
this respect, is tested by rigid examinations in the classics, 
mathematics, history, belles lettres, &c. &c. Thus the public 
have some guarantee that they are fit to occupy the position 
to which they aspire, and therefore tacitly admit them to the 
standing which is due to genius. In fact, their diploma is a 
passport to society. 
The divine, the lawyer, and the physician, are known to 
have passed this ordeal. They may be poor, but, being 
educated, they are universally admitted to the privileges of 
gentlemen. 
But no educational examination ushers the veterinary sur- 
geon into the world, as a man fit to rank above the artizan, 
or to take a higher position in society than him. He may 
be an educated man ; but as things are at present consti- 
tuted, this is much more likely to be the exception than the 
rule. Should he prove himself to be this “ rara avis/’ the 
public give him the full benefit of the remaining portion of 
the sentence, and look upon him as — 
“ Nigroque simillima cygno.” 
That there are many clever, well educated gentlemen in 
the veterinary profession, the pages of the Veterinarian 
and the literature of the day amply testify ; but that all who 
are candidates for its diploma are duly qualified by education 
for the position to w hich they aspire, is I think more than 
problematical. At present there is no proof given or re- 
quired, that the individual who presents himself for his 
diploma can write even ten consecutive lines of correct 
English. The only educational test in operation is that each 
student, when he enters the Royal Veterinary College, should 
be able to write his name in the office-book, and this, more 
as a proof of his daily attendance than anything else. How 
then can the public be expected to concede to him the stand- 
ing of a gentleman, seeing they have no higher proof than 
this? It is possible for a man to enter the college, as a 
pupil, to go in, as it were, at one end of the mill uneducated, 
to be ground for tw 7 o sessions, then to make his debut as a 
veterinary surgeon , and, w hatever may have been his pre- 
vious occupation, he thinks himself a gentleman, and expects 
to be acknowledged as such ! Can anything be more pre- 
posterous ? 
Truly, a man may possess natural talent, although no 
