UNQUALIFIED, PRACTICE. 587 
monial; and that they would occasionally practise on the faith of 
it, and neglect to prepare for that examination which is the only 
proper test of their fitness to practise. lie is, in a great mea¬ 
sure, right; for a certificate of twelve months’ attendance would 
often be exhibited as a proof of qualification, although the holder 
of that certificate may have been the idlest fellow that ever lived. 
It should also be recollected, that, in medical schools, the prin¬ 
cipal or only value of the certificate is, that the examiners will 
require it as a proof of the candidate’s having been in the way of 
improvement; but no certificate is necessary for the veterinary 
student; the inspection of the books will always be sufficient to 
ascertain whether he has resided at the college the prescribed 
time. He is, therefore, right in withholding that which can be 
of little actual use, and is subject to very gross abuse. The cer¬ 
tificate is worth nothing to the holder of a diploma; but it may 
be an incentive to, and premium for idleness. When, however, 
Mr. Coleman very coolly pockets the fee, and gives no ticket of 
admission, no acknowledgment whatever, he carries the matter a 
little too far. The ticket is the conventional receipt; it is an 
acknowledgment of money received, and an obligation to give the 
money’s worth. While Mr. Coleman does right in guarding the 
profession, he should not deprive the student of all legal claim 
on him for the performance of his part of the agreement. Mr. 
Coleman is the only lecturer we know who refuses to give a ticket 
of admission to his lectures. The reason of that refusal we cannot 
divine ; nor do we think that such refusal can be defended. 
But to return : is there nothing more that can be done to pre¬ 
vent this intrusion of half-instructed and incompetent persons ? 
Yes ; much in prospectu. When the Veterinary College becomes 
that which its founders intended it should be; when the student 
receives within its walls that instruction which will prepare him 
for the proper exercise of his profession in all its branches; when 
it may defy inquiry as to the competency of its method and ex¬ 
tent of teaching, it may unite with other schools at Edinburgh, 
or Dublin, or the metropolis itself, and in which there is the 
same adequacy of instruction, and may ask or demand from 
government either the establishment of a general board of vete- 
