ANNUAL DINNER. 
375 
have returned thanks for the toast, has been unavoidably 
obliged to leave the room. Speaking on the spur of the 
moment, let me say that I do not see why there should not 
be the greatest possible sympathy between the College of 
Veterinary Surgeons and the College of Physicians and the 
Royal College of Surgeons. Their anatomy is very nearly 
the same, their physiology is quite identical, their patho¬ 
logy also, and the practice of the one harmonises very much 
with that of the other, so that I do not see why there should 
not be the greatest sympathy existing between them. Gentle¬ 
men, I am more than thankful to you for the honour 
that you have done these old corporations in drinking this 
toast. 
The 'President .—The next toast, gentlemen, to which I will 
call your attention, is one which I am sure you will drink, as 
we say, in a bumper. It is, The Court of Examiners.^^ 
I am certain I need not tell you how much, as a profession, 
we are indebted to the Court of Examiners for so kindly un¬ 
dertaking the task of testing, in the efficient manner they do, 
the candidates sent up to them from the different veterinary 
schools. It has been said that we owe, and I am quite ready 
to admit it, a considerable debt of gratitude both to the 
College of Physicians and to the College of Surgeons, for 
having from the earliest times done all that lay in their power 
to promote the onward progress of the science to which we 
are attached. You will see this the more forciblv when I 
%/ 
tell you that, until the obtainment of the charter, the 
examination of our pupils was entirely entrusted to the care 
of physicians and surgeons. There were some members of 
our profession at that time who thought that, the College 
having existed for a considerable number of years, for it 
was established in 1790, although we were not an incorpo¬ 
rated body until 1844, there had arisen amongst ourselves 
men quite competent to examine the student upon the prac¬ 
tical branches of the profession. There were, I say, some 
members who entertained that idea, and rightly so, but there 
were others amongst us who thought that we might dis¬ 
pense entirely with what was called the medical section of the 
board. I am sure, however, that if the strongest advocates for 
that system were now alive they would see that a considerable 
advantage has arisen from our being united with physicians 
and surgeons in the examinations. We can boast, I think, of 
that which very few professions can, namely, in having asso¬ 
ciated with us as examiners gentlemen who possess not only 
an English but a European fame. (Hear, hear.) In looking 
over the list, which I did only this morning, of those who 
