234 A MEMORIAL TO THE GOVERNORS OF 
horse, and that many practitioners have proceeded from that 
school who have been useful to the agricultural interests of their 
country, and have done honour to the institution at which they 
were instructed ; but that veterinary surgeons generally have not 
been held in that estimation to which they are justly entitled. 
That your memorialists mainly attribute this to the incom¬ 
petency of many practitioners who have attended at, or received 
their diplomas from, the Veterinary College. 
That veterinary surgeons, who are best qualified to judge of 
the competency of the candidate for a veterinary diploma, have 
not yet, with the exception of the Professor and Assistant-profes¬ 
sor, been admitted to the examiners’ board, although in every 
other country that board consists of veterinarians alone. Your 
memorialists, therefore, pray, that you would, by admitting a cer¬ 
tain number of veterinary practitioners residing in the metropo¬ 
lis or within ten miles thereof, and elected by the profession 
generally, constitute an examining committee, qualified to decide 
justly and impartially. 
That although your memorialists do, in their own names and 
that of their brother practitioners, and of all future veterinary 
surgeons, avow and maintain their right and competence to form 
a part and portion of the present board of examiners, yet, aware 
of much averseness in that board to admit them (an averseness 
which sufficiently elucidates their present state of degradation), 
they are unwilling to sacrifice to a point of etiquette the ad¬ 
vantage accruing to the profession from their being connected 
with the examination; and propose that, for the present, six of 
their number, residing in the metropolis and its environs, and 
elected by the profession generally, shall, with the Professor and 
Assistant-professor, constitute a separate committee., before whom 
the veterinary pupil shall first appear for examination, and whose 
testimony of his competence shall be obtained ere such pupil 
can obtain his diploma. 
That, lamenting the strangely short and inadequate period of 
attendance at the College, which has hitherto been required from 
the veterinary pupil, your memorialists earnestly unite their prayer 
to that which they understand will be the recommendation of the 
present examining committee, that every pupil shall remain at 
least twelve months at the college; and that even a longer period 
of study shall be required from him who has not been appren¬ 
ticed to, or educated under, a veterinary surgeon or practi¬ 
tioner. 
That, while a correct knowledge of the anatomy of domesti¬ 
cated animals is the only basis on which useful medical acquire- 
