ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 439 
Veterinary Surgeons was instituted in 1844. Since that date, up to the 
present time, this corporation, while labouring under some great disad¬ 
vantages—the chief of which was its want of funds and public support— 
has discharged to the best of its power the ever-increasing and important 
functions imposed upon it by the terms of the Royal Charter of Incor¬ 
poration. 
While endeavouring to further the interests of its members, its prin¬ 
cipal and most responsible duty has been the promotion of veterinary 
education, by its instituting, from time to time, such tests of professional 
knowledge in those who sought its diploma, as would not only protect 
its own reputation as a degree-conferring body, but would also afford a 
guarantee to the public that the holders of this diploma were competent 
and fully qualified veterinary surgeons. These tests have been applied 
to candidates for the diploma by the highest medical and veterinary 
authorities this country has produced, and the candidates who come from 
the schools of England and Scotland are submitted to a severe and 
uniform examination. The subjects in which the students are instructed, 
as well as the period of study, are regulated by the Royal College, and 
everything pertaining to the advancement of veterinary medicine, and its 
utilisation for the public good, is carefully considered by it. 
Since its incorporation in 1844 the Royal College of Veterinary 
Surgeons has provided the country with upwards of three thousand 
qualified practitioners in animal medicine and surgery. These graduates 
have not only practised their profession with advantage to the three 
kingdoms, but every part of our great empire has benefited from their 
presence, while in the army they have served the country in peace and 
in war. 
The institution which has done so much public and professional service 
could not be maintained without considerable expense and much sacrifice 
of time and thought on the part of the profession. It has never received 
any extraneous assistance ; but has existed on its own efforts and the 
examination fees obtained from its graduates. The latter has been 
necessarily fixed at the lowest possible sum, so that they might not deter 
poor but worthy men from joining the ranks of a profession which had to 
fight its own way to position and appreciation. 
But with the rapidly developing demands of medical science, the 
greater amount of knowledge required from members of the veterinary 
profession—due to the higher and more exacting services they are called 
upon to render—and the yearly increasing expenses incurred by the 
Veterinary Corporation in maintaining an ever-rising standard of effi¬ 
ciency, it is found that the past rate of progress cannot be sustained 
without some help from the country. The annual income is not 
sufficient to defray the heavy expenses attending the graduation of 
students, and keep up a suitable building for the work of the Royal 
College. The place where its business is now transacted, and where it 
has its home, is every way inadequate to its requirements, and does no 
credit to a country which possesses the finest and most valuable domes¬ 
ticated animals in the world. It is situated in one of the most 
undesirable parts of London, has no accommodation, and is destitute of 
a museum for instructional purposes, and of other facilities which are 
urgently needed, if veterinary medicine in this country is to keep pace 
with that in other countries. 
In this crisis in its history, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons 
of Great Britain and Ireland feels itself itself compelled to appeal, for 
the first time, to Her Majesty’s Government for countenance and 
support in its laudable desire to still further benefit the country by 
