ANNUAL MEETING. 
457 
Let them alter a little the tables, but not make any sweeping 
changes. They might make the examinations both oral and 
■written, and decide about the practical portion some other 
time. The preliminary examination was perfectly indis¬ 
pensable. 
Mr. Helmore asked if Professor Spooner had anything to 
say upon the subject. 
The President said Professor Spooner had already spoken. 
Professor Spooner replied that he had only spoken to a 
specific point. 
Mr. Lawson said it was very clear that the Poyal College 
of Veterinary Surgeons had no power whatever to institute 
a preliminary examination. There had been a preliminary 
examination held at the E-oyal Veterinary College in London 
and the Veterinary College in Glasgow, and he thought it 
would not be unadvisable if such an examination were held 
at the Edinburgh Veterinary College. He agreed with those 
who thought that if these preliminary examinations could be 
instituted by the authority of the Loyal College of Veteri¬ 
nary Surgeons rather than by that of the teachers of the 
schools it would he better. If they could not do all the good 
they wished, surely half a loaf was better than none. 
Professor Spooner said he could endorse what Mr. Wilkin¬ 
son had said about having this subject of preliminary exami¬ 
nations under consideration for a considerable time, for he 
knew from conversations which he had had with Mr. Wilkin¬ 
son on this matter that he had deeply considered it. The 
result of their cogitation was to institute the preliminary 
education test at their institution, of which Mr. Wilkinson 
Avas one of the governors. Noav that the preliminary exami¬ 
nation had been carried on for four or hve years with the 
most happy results, he could safely say that the pupils 
Avho had entered the College within the last twelve months 
had been infinitely superior to those Avhich preceded them 
as regarded their scholastic education. Those examinations 
had, however, been very gradual; they had been rendered 
more and more stringent. He had ahvays thought, and he 
thought still, with Professor Williams, that it was a duty 
which should not devolve upon the teacher, but should be 
instituted by an independent body, and he suggested to the 
governors of his College at the last meeting that the College 
of Preceptors should be the parties applied to to institute 
those examinations. (Hear, hear.) But it Avas not for the 
Loyal College of Veterinary Surgeons to determine anything 
Avith regard to a preliminary examination. It Avas very true, 
as Mr. Hunting had suggested, that the Loyal College of 
