VETERINARY PROGRESS. 
257 
ft 
33 
seen so many difficulties in the way of carrying them out, not 
only with reference to pathology, but also with reference to 
anatomy, that he had hesitated to make any stir in the 
matter. 
“ The Council had, however, now decided that a practical 
examination should take place, and the pupil, therefore, 
must in future be practically educated. The question then 
arose, How was he to obtain the education ? It would not 
be imparted efficiently in collegiate institutions. 
“ No doubt some who entered the schools without any 
previous instruction would, by diligently applying their 
minds to the study, become ornaments to the profession. 
He could relate several such instances, but still it was un¬ 
questionably better that a pupil should be competent to 
undergo a practical examination. At the Royal Veterinary 
College there were rarely less than seventy patients, and 
operations were being constantly performed; but how could 
manipulative instructions be given to 100 or 150 young men 
at once. He therefore looked to the profession at large to 
assist the young men , and not shirk the responsibility of 
taking them as pupils before they came to College. It was 
the duty of the profession to afford every facility to those 
who wished to acquire a practical knowledge of the veteri¬ 
nary art, and to render the expense attending its acquisition 
as little as possible.” 
The Preliminary or Matriculatory Examination. —This, 
as it is now carried out, is considered exceedingly unsatis¬ 
factory and objectionable. There is no concerted action 
between the four teaching schools; each school appoints its 
own examiners, and settles the extent and nature of the 
examination, subjects to be examined upon, &c. Now, it 
shows, upon the very face of it, that the examinations will be 
unequal. This has been the case all the way through. Until 
lately the Principal of one of the schools was his own ex¬ 
aminer, and we all know it is against human nature that he 
would reject his own students, and throw away his own 
living. I have been present at some of these examinations, 
and feel bound to admit the examination was conducted with 
perfect fairness and in a satisfactory manner. At the open¬ 
ing of the last session at Camden Town a youth who had 
betaken himself to one of the schools in Scotland was ex¬ 
amined there, and passed his preliminary; he applied for 
bis certificate, but was refused until he entered that College ; 
he then presented himself at another school in the same city, 
was examined, and passed; he applied for his certificate 
and got it; then he returned to London with this cer- 
