212 
LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
useful veterinary surgeon if his practical training has been neg¬ 
lected or omitted in his youth. Our motto must be, “Practice with 
Science.” 
I hope and trust these associations will not allow the question to 
die, but I want this and each of| the other veterinary medical asso¬ 
ciations to co-operate with the Yorkshire Veterinary Medical Society 
in petitioning the Council to take into consideration the question 
of incorporating a practical test in their examination for a diploma ; 
and also petitioning each of the colleges to enforce the apprentice¬ 
ship system, or an approximation to it. In Scotland apprenticeships 
are almost unknown. I want these associations to speak out and 
to keep agitating until this is satisfactorily established. This is a 
point of the greatest importance to the future well-being of our 
profession. Only think of a youth being taught veterinary surgery 
where there are no patients to be seen ! 
We have an Examination Committee of the Council of the Eoyal 
College of Veterinary Surgeons ; but although I am upon this com¬ 
mittee, I cannot disassociate in mind examination from education. 
I maintain it is futile and incongruous to institute a code of rules or 
subjects to be examined upon for the guidance of the examiners 
unless at the same time at the colleges the professors teach the 
students upon such subjects. It is quite proper that the Council 
take the initiative. It is quite true that the adoption of such a 
course may tend to spur on the teachers at the colleges, become a 
sort of pressure from without, and a justification for them to 
press onwards. 
At one of the examinations in December last three candidates only 
out of twelve passed. If the number of scientific subjects to be exa¬ 
mined upon be increased, and the list be made still more severe, how 
many candidates, I would ask, could get through ? I would have the 
subject of examination and education merged into one committee ; let 
the principal of each college form part of such committee, and by 
all means have a voice in the formation of the Boards of Examiners, 
go hand in hand in the work—they are members of Council and 
have a legitimate right to a voice in it; and above all other things, 
first and foremost, I would have the practical test at the examina¬ 
tion, and the practical education of the youth carried out. Is it not 
a well-known fact that many young men enter our veterinary schools 
fresh from the counter, the office, the desk, or it may be from the 
highest scholastic institution, without any previous knowledge 
whatever of the practical duties which they may be called upon 
hereafter to perform, whilst others again are equally ignorant of 
everything but equine practice ; as students they may be all 
that can be desired, but the true test remains to be applied by the 
public. When having obtained his diploma the young “vet.” 
settles down in some town or village to practice, perhaps in the 
face of much opposition, it is then that the tug of war begins. 
Can we, I ask, expect, or reasonably suppose that fifteen months’ 
training at a veterinary college is sufficient to enable the student 
to satisfactorily discharge the grave duties and responsibilities 
