440 
ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
continuing to improve veterinary education, as without this countenance 
and support such improvement is now impossible. 
It is obvious that veterinary medicine is as yet in its infancy; it has 
only of late years begun to yield some of the benefits it will undoubtedly 
confer when properly cultivated and fostered. Up to this time the 
Royal College has exerted itself to the utmost to serve the public 
interests without asking for any acknowledgment or compensation from 
the public; but in the circumstances in which it is now placed it can no 
longer attempt to do so with dignity to itself or advantage to the 
community without aid from the country it has so well served and so 
largely benefited. Though these benefits have been so great and so 
manifest, yet of all the learned bodies the Royal College of Veterinary 
Surgeons would appear to be the last to obtain recognition or assistance. 
Your petitioners would humbly beg to draw attention to the fact, that 
in 1799 the Parliament of this country voted the sum of £15,000 for the 
museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and that in 1806 another sum 
of £15,000 was voted in aid of the erection of an edifice for the display 
of an arrangement of the Hunterian collection; while a third grant of 
£12,500 for the same purpose was subsequently voted, and in 1847 
another sum of £15,000 in aid of an extension of the museum buildings. 
Your petitioners may be also allowed to refer to the fact that the Royal 
College of Physicians hold premises under the Government at a merely 
nominal rent, while the Government has found a local habitation for 
nearly every scientific society in London. 
Your petitioners would beg most earnestly to assure Her Majesty’s 
Government that they are only actuated by an unselfish and patriotic 
desire to directly benefit the country in soliciting its assistance, and 
whatever aid it may be pleased at present to bestow will be repaid 
tenfold hereafter. 
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons is anxious and willing to 
continue its labours for the public good, but it feels that, in return, it 
has a strong claim for recognition in what it has already accomplished 
and what it now seeks to achieve. 
It therefore humbly prays that Her Majesty’s Government will 
graciously take into consideration the prayer of the petitioners, and 
favorably respond by granting either a building which would meet 
the requirements of the Royal College, to be maintained at the cost of 
the Corporation, or a sum of money sufficient to provide such premises. 
The Committee having obtained an interview with his Grace the 
Duke of Richmond, President of the Privy Council, brought up the 
following report: 
The Committee appointed by the Council reported that they obtained 
an interview with Ills Grace the Duke of Richmond, President of the 
Privy Council. 
The Committee urged the claims of the veterinary profession on the 
favorable consideration of the Government. His Grace fully admitted 
those claims and promised to bring them before his colleagues. But he 
added, “In the present state of the Exchequer, and having regard to 
the present demands which are being made by the present crisis on the 
National Funds, I fear I must say that the present is not a favorable 
opportunity of pressing your claims.” 
The Committee then asked the assistance of His Grace in obtaining 
rooms in one of the Government buildings in case no pecuniary grant 
could be made at present. His Grace said he was afraid all the 
Government buildings were at present fully occupied, but promised to 
make inquiry. 
