THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE. 265 



interest of their own Government. I have myself visited several 

 of the German schools, and also that at Alfort, France. 



The Continental schools for the study and development of veteri- 

 nary medicine were not founded by the respective governments so 

 much to educate men to practice their profession, as to provide men 

 capable of studying the nature of those fearful pests which had re- 

 peatedly brought poverty to the people, and even threatened nations 

 with ruin, and to discover means for their prevention. 



In this regard the French schools took a slightly different course 

 from those of Germany, giving more attention to the practical at 

 the expense of the scientific in their education ; this reproach is not, 

 however, applicable to the French schools of our day, especially 

 those at Lyons and Toulouse, although that at Alfort has contrib- 

 uted no insignificant amount of scientific work, especially that of 

 the veterinary physiologist Colin, and M. Bouley, the inspector-gen- 

 eral of the schools. At the time when the first veterinary schools 

 were established in France, that nation was approaching the proud 

 position of leader in medical science and culture, which she held for 

 half a century. Bichat, a giant among giants, founded a new sys- 

 tem of anatomy, and died at the early age of thirty-one, a martyr to 

 the cause of science and a benefactor to the world. Cruveilhier, the 

 author of a noted work upon pathology ; Laennec, the author of per- 

 cussion and auscultation ; Broussais, the vampire of medicine, so 

 called on account of the extent to which he advocated bleeding ; and 

 many others, all tended to make Paris a haven toward which men 

 desiring knowledge in this branch of science longingly turned ; 

 longing, not like some American women to go to Paris to die, but 

 for that wisdom with which her intellectual fountains were so re- 

 pletely filled. 



It was but in the order of things that the first veterinary school 

 of the world should be started by a Frenchman, and in France. 

 This honor belongs to an "advocate," Claude Bourgelat, 1712-'79. 

 This young man was educated to follow the profession of law, and 

 studied at Toulouse. Having by his talent won a case which after- 

 ward appeared unjust to him — we wish some of our young American 

 lawyers would follow his example ! — he resolved to retire from that 

 profession, and, having from early youth nourished a passionate 

 fondness for the horse, resolved to encourage this taste ; in order to 

 do this, he became an officer in a cavalry regiment for a short time, 

 and then chief of the riding academy at Lyons, which soon acquired 

 great notoriety under the guidance of its enthusiastic teacher. The 

 earnest spirit of the young riding-master could not content itself 



