VETERINARY EDUCATION. 
87 
These men, however, are the exception, as no qualifications are 
necessary for admission except the payment of the fees, there being no 
matriculation examination. Students from other colleges can enter here 
on their own statement of having attended lectures elsewhere, and with¬ 
out producing certificates from the college or Professors under whom 
they assume to have studied ; in fact, such men are encouraged, as may 
be seen by referring to last issue of the Review. Were this practice con¬ 
fined to educated men, as I believe the gentleman there referred to is, 
the injury to the profession would not be so great as to grant diplomas 
of qualification to persons wholly incapable of acquiring sufficient know¬ 
ledge of science to pass any examination, instances of which can be 
cited. And it is much to be regretted that discontented students, who 
doubt their capability of graduating at other schools, or who fail 
altogether, can receive a ready welcome and assurance of success at 
Toronto. 
In the prospectus for 1876-77 we read, “ The winter session begins 
from the 20th to the 25th of October, .... and junior 
• * 
students can enter at any time until January .” 
“Students intending to prepare themselves for the practice of the 
Veterinary art as a profession, are required to attend two sessions at 
least.” 
Now, suppose a student enters in January (few will come in Octo¬ 
ber if they may as well enter in January), what benefits can he derive 
from, say, for instance, Dr. Croft’s lectures on Chemistry, which have 
been in progress since the beginning of October, would he not be in the 
same position as if he were to commence arithmetic at quadratic equa¬ 
tions, instead of the multiplication table ? What better position is he 
in with relation to Physiology, Anatomy, or any of the other subjects ?— 
yet this counts one session. Again, supposing he enters his second 
session in October, and even does not take advantage of the December 
examination (as the prospectus leads us to believe he can), but attends 
on until the April one, can it be possible for any young man, no matter 
how studious, to acquire more than a mere rudimentary outline of the 
abstruse sciences of Anatomy, Chemistry, Materia Medica, Physiology, 
Pathology, and all the collateral branches of study which are said to 
form the subjects of examination ?—the first three months of the nine 
forming the two sessions required being lost, as we have seen, in a great 
measure. 
Suppose, even, that they could pass a fair theoretical examination, 
how is it possible, in the fifteen months over which their pupilage ex- 
