150 VETERINARY EDUCATION AND EXAMINATION QUESTION. 
afterwards carried on praetice with M.R.C.V.S. to their 
names, though aetually unable to indite a letter or make out 
a bill so as to be readable, thus lowering the moral effect of 
the diploma in the eyes of the public, who are not slow to 
detect such cases. But how is this to be obviated? Well, 
since the apprenticeship clause seems to be regarded with 
disfavour by some (and, I think, principally from themselves 
lacking the advantages of it in their early career), while the 
preliminary examination is also considered by others in an 
unfavorable light, I would venture to suggest that a certifi¬ 
cate from a qualified veterinary surgeon in actual practice be 
required from any student who presents himself for examina¬ 
tion, the said certificate being simply a guarantee of the 
student in question being fully acquainted with all the prac¬ 
tical details and duties of the profession; and in lieu of a 
preliminary examination, each student before being entered 
on the college books should be required to furnish a reference 
as to respectability, character, &c., a plan which, I consider, 
would at once do away with many of the evils of the past, and 
be applicable in the future without reducing the number of 
students, by whom alone the college and its professors can be 
supported, and who can supply the places of the old school 
of practitioners as, one by one, they succumb to the call of 
time. Many of your readers will, no doubt, be more than 
ever keenly alive to this subject from recent events, which 
have shown that pupils, from sixteen and upwards, have been 
presided over and taught by men whose diplomas were only 
of one, two, or four years^ duration, and who could not, 
therefore, be efficient teachers of practice based upon sound 
principles; and I fear much that the day is far distant 
when even professors of the highest standing will be able, 
from lack of opportunity, to so teach as to make their 
pupils what their diplomas say they are, and thus dispense 
with the advantages to be derived from their living a cer¬ 
tain length of time with a professional man. In these 
days of veterinary medical associations I cannot but think 
that it is a young maffis own fault if he is not well prepared 
for the teaching he is to receive at college, and thus mate¬ 
rially lighten the labours of his teachers, instead of the 
reverse, which some professors would fain have us believe 
from the tenor of the remarks lately made in their leading 
articles with reference to the subject. 
