ANNUAL MEETING. 
461 
tion that the examiners could ask him, and they would think 
him a remarkably clever fellow, but if he were taken into a 
sick-box he would in many cases feel himself at sea. He 
saw an objection to students being asked ‘‘What is amiss 
with this horse?” when he had gone into the box every day 
for the previous fortnight and heard the professor describe 
the case. He could, however, see numbers of means by 
which the thing could he carried out in a proper way. He 
had no doubt the professors of the colleges would yield to 
the wishes of the Council. He must say he should sooner 
reject a student because he was deficient in his practical 
knowledge than he would if he were proficient in his practical 
knowledge but deficient in the more scientific points of his 
education. 
Professor Armatage said, with regard to the unanimity of 
the profession and the professors of the different colleges, it 
was already in evidence that two gentlemen belonging to 
two distinct schools were agreed in their opinion as to the 
efficacy and necessity of preliminary examinations, and Pro¬ 
fessor McCall had also expressed himself in favour of a pre¬ 
liminary examination, and that one was carried out at his 
college. The question seemed to him (Professor Armatage) 
to lie in a nutshell, and there was no reason for cavil or dis¬ 
pute respecting it. If the schools were unanimous with 
respect to the question of preliminary examination, why not 
institute something in their own cities and towns, and so 
test the capacity of the student? It had been the practice 
to get the young man to write his name prior to paying the 
fees, and if he could do that he could pass. With regard to 
the powers of the Council to test the fitness of a young man 
entering the profession, he had always held the opinion that 
if the Council did not possess the power to appoint a number of 
men for testing the preliminary education of the student, they 
could efiectively carry out the test in another way by insti¬ 
tuting a more rigid examination. He was very much pleased 
to see a notice of the remarks which had fallen from Mr. 
Ernes at the meetings of the Council. The subject had been 
amply dealt with by other speakers. The time had now come 
when, as Mr. Greaves said, they should deal with the question, 
and not talk about it. Members of the profession were sur¬ 
rounded in the villages and towns where they practised by 
men who took the bread from their mouths, and it became a 
matter of very great importance that the Council should turn 
out efficient men, so that they might show the world that 
there was a benefit in being a Member of the Eoval College 
of Veterinary Surgeons. At the present time there was a 
