232 EDUCATION OF QUALIFIED VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
such statesmen as Sir James Graham and Sir Robert Peel, who 
were then responsible advisers of the Crown, would not have been 
likely to sanction a step of this nature had there not existed good 
ground for its adoption ; nor would the enlightened public opinion 
of London tolerate the elevation to professional rank of men utterly 
destitute of professional attainments. But, far from evading 
specific information, I am anxious that the community should know 
fully the extent and character of the education necessary to qualify 
a veterinary surgeon for practising in a manner creditable to 
himself and satisfactory to his employers. The student of the 
Royal Veterinary College, London, who means to succeed in his 
profession, must attend public lectures and examinations on 
anatomy, physiology, pathology, chemistry, veterinary pharmacy, 
and therapeutics, besides anatomical demonstrations, and the cli- 
nical lectures delivered in the hospital of the establishment. The 
course embraces at least two years, including the hospital practice, 
which I consider of essential importance ; and many students find 
it indispensable to attend a third and even a fourth year before 
they are fully prepared to pass the severe ordeal of the examination 
for diploma. In these different classes, as I can testify from 
experience, it is impossible to get forward without hard work and 
untiring diligence. In addition to the business of the Royal 
Veterinary College, I attended a course of human anatomy in 
King’s College, London, and the latter did not appear to me to 
demand a larger amount of minute and persevering attention. 
It might be supposed that, after completing this curriculum, 
success at the final examination is a matter of course. Far from 
it, as may be evinced by the simple fact, that the examiners form 
a board altogether distinct from the professors, and independent of 
the College. Who were my teachers at the Royal Veterinary 
College ? Professor Coleman, president of the institution, the 
bosom friend of Sir Astley Cooper, Professor Sewell, Professor 
Morton, Mr. Vines, Demonstrator of Anatomy ; and outside the 
walls, Mr. Youatt, in University College, who is favourably 
known by his different publications, and Dr. Herbert Mayo, in 
King’s College. Who were my examiners for diploma? Sir 
Astley P. Cooper, Sir Charles Bell, Sir Benjamin B. Brodie, 
Richard Bright, M.D., John Aston Paris, M.D., Joseph H. Green, 
Esq., and Benjamin Travers, Esq., surgeons. The names of these 
ornaments of the medical profession furnish to the public a suffi- 
cient guarantee that no unqualified person would be permitted to 
rest his false pretensions on the certificate of their approval, and 
thus impose on the community. The strictness of the examination 
for diploma is indeed proverbial ; and accordingly, although the 
entrance fee for this examination alone amounts to ten guineas — a 
