220 ADJOURNED GENERAL MEETING OF 
Mr. You att. —Then, sir, I beg to speak on the question, whe¬ 
ther it be or be not necessary that there should be some alteration 
in the present examining medical committee. There can be no 
doubt that the examining committee, as at present constituted, 
was the best that could be selected at the establishment of the 
Veterinary College. The Professor of the College, aware of the 
responsibility which he would incur as the sole judge of the com¬ 
petency of the pupil, and foreseeing many a probable source of 
unpleasantness and annoyance to which, he might be, and most 
unjustly, exposed, from the discontent of the rejected candidate, 
looked round for persons to share in that responsibility, and, by 
dividing it, to lessen, or altogether prevent its unpleasant conse¬ 
quences; and such persons he would select from those who were 
as well qualified as they could be, at that time, to discharge the 
duties of the examiners’ board. Certain members of the medi¬ 
cal profession were thus, and I say very properly, united with him, 
because there were then no veterinary surgeons. These medical 
gentlemen were the only individuals the professor could select; 
and, by obtaining their assistance, he secured this most important 
benefit—a free admission for veterinary students to lectures, to 
which they could not otherwise have obtained access, for their . 
own little funds would not have permitted the majority of them to 
have attended in the regular way. This was a great point gained 
for the comfort of the Professor and the improvement of the pupil; 1 
and, as applicable to these times, I cordially approve of the law, / 
whether on record or not, which required that the examining 
committee should be constituted of teachers alone. It held out a 
lure (I do not use the term in an invidious sense)—it offered a 
motive which would have its influence on every well-constituted ‘ 
mind, to induce other lecturers to throw open their theatres to ve- 3 
terinary students. 
But, sir, the times which we w itness are different. The Vete- 3 
rinary College has been established seven-and-thirty years; and, 
instead of there being no veterinary surgeons, they are now to be j 
found in every pail of the country. It, then, becomes a question, : 
whether w r e may not, and whether we ought not, to give to the fl 
professor other coadjutors—others who will equally share in his 1 
responsibility, and who are better qualified to decide on the pro- i 
ficiency of the candidate for a diploma. 
When the veterinary school at Alfort was first established, > 
there were two professors. Those tw o gentlemen felt, like the first j 
professor of the college at St. Pancras, the responsibility that! 
would attach to them in the discharge of their important, and j 
sometimes painful office, as examiners; and they anxiously sought I 
