606 ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
law the hands of the Principals of the Colleges would be very materially 
strengthened, because they would be able to turn round to the bye-law 
and get rid of any difficulty, knowing that if the student remained at 
the College he would not do himself, the College, or the profession any 
credit. The second argument that had been advanced by Mr. Taylor 
was that there was no such bye-law in the clerical, legal, or medical pro¬ 
fessions ; but he would point out that the position of those professions 
was assured, and when the position of the Royal College of Yeterinary 
Surgeons had reached a similar standpoint, then it would be time enough 
to abolish the bye-law. The profession could not afford to have any 
inefficient members in its midst. The next argument that had been 
used—and the one which, in his opinion, was the weakest of the lot— 
was that students, if they were rejected three times, would still continue 
to practise as quacks, and the country would be over-run with them. 
But he would ask whether it was not better that inefficient men should 
be known in the country to be quacks than that they should be palmed 
off on the public as efficient Veterinary Surgeons. The fraud would 
rest with the Royal College. The next argument was the sentimental 
grievance. It had been stated that the student would be ruined and 
would have no prospect of gaining a position in life and society, and 
all that sort of thing. These sentiments, no doubt, did great credit to 
his friend Mr. Taylor, who had a large heart and a warm nature ; but 
he contended that the profession could not yet afford to indulge in 
sentimental legislation. The object of the Council was to raise the 
standard of the profession, and students knew what they might expect 
when they entered into the contest. If the idea were carried on to its 
logical conclusion, and the feelings of the students and their parents 
were exclusively and entirely studied, the result would be that the tone 
of the examinations would be lowered. If the bye-law were cancelled, 
he believed that a large percentage of idle, lazy, and perhaps dissipated 
students would be constantly hanging about the colleges, and that the 
principal incentives for them to work would be taken away. He had 
been told by some of the professors that students did not work so well 
now as they did in former times. For years past the object desired by 
the profession and advocated by the veterinary periodicals had been to 
raise the standard of education. The very name of education had be¬ 
come so hackneyed that one was tired of hearing it; the reason being 
that the profession was tired of words and wanted actions. With regard 
to what occurred at the annual meeting in regard to Mr. Wallis’s case, 
it ought to teach them a severe lesson. He never saw a more humiliating 
spectacle than that of a member of the profession taking advantage of his 
position, and airing his grievances in public. There might be a great 
complaint that a verdict was snatched on that occasion, but the 
gentlemen assembled at the annual meeting formed a very small fraction 
of the profession, and he submitted that if the question had been put 
before the profession generally in its proper bearings, and different 
lights, the verdict would have been different. What was the immediate 
result of that? No sooner had Mr. Wallis sat down than one of the 
oldest members of the profession got up and impugned the very honesty, 
integrity, and capacity of the examiners. What he meant was, that if 
students were rejected more than three times, it arose, not from the 
stupidity of the students, but from the stupidity of the examiners ; and 
he ventured to say that the speaker would not have ventured to make 
such a statement as that if it had not been for what previously occurred 
at the annual meeting. He was of opinion that the abolition of the bye¬ 
law would prevent the realisation of the higher aspirations of the more 
