EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
415 
But there is another view—the quid pro quo side of the 
question—to be taken: in other words, does the candidate for 
M.R.C.V.S. receive money’s worth for his fee of ten guineas! 
or is what he receives worth but six guineas! Really, honour 
and reputation, and such like commodities are, now-a-days, so 
variously valued at the hands of various people and different 
individuals, that it has become a difficult matter to set a price 
upon such stuffs in pounds, shillings, and pence. The Royal 
College of Surgeons charge for their diploma for membership 
£22, and for their Fellowship c£10 in addition; whilst the 
Worshipful Company of Apothecaries—whose diploma it is 
really, by law, absolutely necessary to be possessed of, in order 
to practise as a surgeon-apothecary—costs but ten guineas; 'yet 
this difference is not found to deter the majority of hospital 
medical pupils from becoming either members or fellows of their 
own college. That our own corporate honours are worth ten 
guineas, or six, or even one guinea, we will not pretend to de¬ 
termine, further than that, if they are not worth one sum they 
are, probably, dear at either of the other sums; and that, if the 
Council were to resolve to reduce their nominal value still lower, 
they would in a very short time become altogether valueless, 
and even despicable. Let us beware how we enter into resolu¬ 
tions to make cheap veterinary surgeons ! 
There is yet another light in which this question may, and 
indeed ought to be, viewed; and that is, as it regards the cor¬ 
porate body of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. 
Like other chartered bodies, it cannot support even its nominal 
existence without funds. It has created* members; those mem¬ 
bers have appointed President and Vice-Presidents, as well as 
Examiners, and, moreover, have made bye-laws for their rule 
and governance; but as for a College, save in the name of one, 
none do they possess, none do they appear likely at present to 
possess, and certainly none ever will they possess, if the pupils’ 
fees for examination—the sole ostensible source of income they 
possess—are to be cut down to barely sufficient to defray the obli¬ 
gations of examination. Look at the College of Surgeons in Lin- 
coln’s-inn-fields! Does any member of it suppose that such a 
structure would ever have been erected, and endowed in its 
