LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 223 
and helminthology, in the space of sixteen or eighteen months ? 
It may be possible, but only with a few. I think the time ought 
to be further extended, say to four sessions, and I am of opinion 
that the examination should be’conducted on a similar system to the 
one in vogue at the medical schools, i. e. that at the termination of 
each session an examination in one or more subjects should be 
instituted. In opposition to this, arguments have been brought 
forward to the effect that students—knowing what subjects 
they would be examined in—would “ cram ” themselves for the 
occasion, and as a result would forget much of the matter they 
had crammed their brains wutli. I do not see why this argument 
should hold good, inasmuch as we all know that at scientific and 
other examinations there is always a certain amount of cramming; 
indeed, I think that when a student knows that at the expiration 
of the session he must submit himself to an examination in one or 
more subjects he will apply himself in great part during the 
whole of the session to the subjects named, and not as some 
students, who, when two sessions was the required time to be 
spent within the college before being eligible for examination, 
worked very little during the first session, leaving a great deal to 
be done during the second, and who, with the help of continued 
“ cramming and grinding” for a few weeks prior to the examina¬ 
tion, managed to pass. The latter system is, I think, to be the 
most deplored. 
Respecting the examinations, I hold that they should be viva 
voce, written, and practical; and further, that the examinations 
at the three colleges should be conducted by members of one 
examining board, and the members of the board elected by the 
Council of the Royal College of Yeterinary Surgeons. Let each 
school pursue its own course of instruction. I am therefore in 
favour of one charter for the three colleges—London, Edinburgh, 
and Glasgow. This I advocate because students attending the 
colleges would then all undergo a similar examination, and the 
successful candidate be in possession of one universally recog¬ 
nised diploma, without the necessity, as at Edinburgh and 
Glasgow, of undergoing a second examination for the diploma of 
the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. 
Yeterinary literature has during the last two or three years 
received from the pens of able authors many valuable additions. 
To those gentlemen who have sacrificed valuable time to the com¬ 
pilation of works calculated to increase our knowledge, improve 
our minds, and elevate our thoughts, I say to those gentlemen we 
are very much indebted; to two or three of them we are more 
particularly indebted for their valuable productions, and to all our 
sincere thanks are due for their indomitable perseverance and 
energy. May they continue in the same praiseworthy course, and 
