EDUCATION OF QUALIFIED VETERINARY SURGEONS. 283 
sum which is not returned to the student, whether he succeed or 
fail — yet it is no uncommon occurrence for numbers of the 
candidates, sometimes amounting to more than one-half, to be 
rejected altogether by the board of examiners. 
There is another criterion, by which some may form a judgment 
respecting the sort of education to be obtained at the Royal 
Veterinary College, — I mean the high standard of remuneration 
adopted with regard to the Professors. 
This I do not notice as an objection to the system; for I maintain 
that it is right and necessary, and sound policy moreover, to pay 
the Professors liberally, in order to secure for the chairs men of 
distinguished talent and comprehensive attainments. What, then, 
is the cost of education in this establishment] I have been 
informed that the fees payable by a student during the three years 
of his undergraduate course in Queen’s College, Belfast, amount to 
about twenty-seven pounds ; and I know that this sum is less than 
the fees paid by my son for the present year in the Royal 
Veterinary College, London. Thus the profession of a veterinary 
surgeon involves not only the mastery of several difficult and 
complicated branches of study, but also an expense of no in- 
considerable magnitude. 
The professional standing of the veterinary surgeon, I may add, 
as distinguished from the uneducated practitioner, is recognised in 
Austria, Prussia, Holland, Belgium, Bavaria, and even in Egypt, 
and more recently in France, the birth-place of veterinary science. 
In Great Britain, the veterinary surgeon who obtains an ap- 
pointment in the army is a commissioned officer taking his place, 
first as a Cornet, subsequently as a Lieutenant, and finally, after 
a considerable period of service, as a Captain. 
It may be insinuated, however, that 1 have yet to establish my 
own claim to the rights and immunities of the profession to which 
I have the honour to belong ; nor can I denounce the insinuation 
as unreasonable, when I reflect on the number of so-called vete- 
rinary practitioners, both here and in England, who hold no 
diploma from the College, and can produce no certificate of 
qualification. Some time since, on receiving the appointment of 
corresponding member of the Council of the Royal College, and 
being requested to ascertain the name of every veterinary surgeon 
in this quarter who holds a London diploma, I was able to report 
no case, with the solitary exception of my own. If such docu- 
ments exist, they seem to be kept a profound secret. As much 
inquiry and no little misapprehension have been afloat upon this 
subject, 1 take leave to say distinctly, though it may savour of 
egotism, that I am authorised to practise by the diploma of the 
Royal Veterinary College, London, signed by every member of 
