98 THE PERIOD OF llESIDENCE AT THE COLLEGE. 
[We insert the following letter from a student. AVe believe that 
^ we can more than guess at the Avriter, otherwise an anonymous 
contribution would have found no place in our pages. We have 
a little modified one sentence, and to that modification he Avill 
not object.] 
Since sympathy has excited the pens of others to intercede in 
our cause, and yet not ours alone, but theirs also, perhaps it will 
not be thought presumptuous for a pupil to hazard a few observa¬ 
tions on a subject most interesting at the present moment. 
It is very discouraging for us Avho have served an apprentice¬ 
ship of three or four years to be compelled to remain as long at the 
College as those who have never served an hour; and it is frankly 
acknowledged to be unjust, even by the students who have come 
among us unprepared. There are plenty of pupils at College now 
who never bled, balled, or performed an operation, and, indeed, who 
never saw these things done before they came here; and they Avill 
not have to stop one hour longer than those who have laboured 
hard in the performance of every manual operation. It is not this 
alone that we complain of, but the inconvenience to which some 
of us will be put, by having to stop here eighteen months after 
our term of apprenticeship has fully expired. If Ave apply our¬ 
selves, w^e might surely be Avell prepared in tAvelve months. 
There Avere some remarks in the last number of The VETERINA¬ 
RIAN regarding another Professor. Should this be calculated to 
afford us an opportunity of getting away sooner, Ave are willing to 
pay him. 
If you Avant to do aAvay the coAvleech and the farrier, change 
the period to tAvelve months for a veterinary surgeon’s apprentice, 
and tAA’o years for all others, and let the entrance fee be thirty 
guineas, Avhich we are ready to make up the moment the rule is 
changed. You will then have far better practitioners, Avho, by 
their practical skill, Avill give confidence to the public. Seeing 
and acting are very different things. A pupil may see an opera¬ 
tion performed, and think to himself it is quite easy; but w'hen he 
is put to the test, and has no one at his elbow to direct him, he 
finds that there is far more difficulty about the matter than he Avas 
