430 
ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
Royal College for some years in a certain official capacity, which had 
given him an opportunity of knowing a great deal of what the Royal 
College had been doing, and of satisfying himself that it had been 
doing excellent work in connection with the veterinary profession. The 
Royal College could not boast of that antiquity which some Royal colleges 
in the toast list could boast of. It only dated back some forty years ; yet 
they might regard it as a very lusty infant—a child which could assert 
itself, which possessed all the elements that conduced to vigorous 
manhood. He knew of few institutions associated with educational 
matters which had done so much good, from a professional point of 
view, as the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons had done. Under 
its auspices, under the examinations conducted by it for a series of 
years, there could be no question that the tone and standard and spirit 
of the veterinary profession had amazingly improved (applause). And 
he was happy to say that the College was not disposed to stand still, but 
was desirous of furthering the prosperity of the profession over which 
it exercised so important a superintendence. During the years he had 
been engaged as one of its examining body, a most important improve¬ 
ment had been instituted, namely, the lengthening of the curriculum. 
Nothing, he thought, that the College had yet done had been more con¬ 
ducive of good than the addition of one year to the curriculum. He 
had had an opportunity of comparing the acquirements of the candi¬ 
dates before this extension, and he could assure the members of the 
College present that the change had been of a most beneficial character. 
The candidates were now prepared to answer questions, and to display 
an acquaintance with their various important departments of profes¬ 
sional knowledge which, prior to the extension referred to, it would 
have been simply absurd on the part of an examiner to have expected. 
The young men now in course of preparation for examination in its 
successive stages were unquestionably more thoroughly prepared than 
was the case formerly. But if he might be allowed at the meeting of so 
manv influential members of the College to make a statement with 
reference to veterinary education and examination, he should like to 
say that he thought the College ought to make an additional step for¬ 
ward, and that before long. The step should not be in the direction of 
extending the professional curriculum from three to four years—not at 
least now, for he did not think the profession ripe for that; and the 
addition of another year of study added to expense of study, conse¬ 
quently many who would be disposed to enter the profession might not 
have the funds to do so. The step he urged, and which he hoped would 
be seriously considered, was the institution of an entrance examination. 
Nothing, he thought, would add so much to the standard of attainments 
in the veterinary profession as the institution of such an examination ; 
and no one should be allowed to appear for professional examination 
until he had passed that entrance examination. As an examiner, he 
had constantly felt difficulty with candidates who came up absolutely 
ignorant of the Latin language, on which was based so many of the 
terms employed in veterinary medicine, and the sciences on which 
veterinary medicine was founded. He would have an entrance examina¬ 
tion embracing not only Latin, but English, and the more ordinary arts 
of education. This, he maintained, would increase the whole standard 
of the profession; and on this occasion of their meeting under the 
presidency of one who had long been connected with veterinary educa¬ 
tion in Edinburgh, he thought it a fitting time to bring forward this 
suggestion. Principal Williams had been selected to fill the high office 
of Chairman of that College from his high attainments; and with the 
