278 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 



would give to France somewhere about 150 newly graduated veteri- 

 narians. (The number of civil veterinary surgeons in France was 

 in 1860, 2,760 ; in 1871, 3,036 ; in 1875, 3,019.) Every two or four 

 students at Alfort have a room in which they sleep only, otherwise 

 they are in the study or lecture rooms the whole day ; each year- 

 student having a separate study-room appropriated to his use, ex- 

 cept that the third and fourth year students have a study-room in 

 common. They are allowed certain hours for recreation, in which 

 they are permitted to visit one another in the different study-rooms, 

 or to roam over the court and garden of the institute. The meals 

 are taken in a common room {refectoire) at fixed hours, and are 

 good and sufficient. Each Sunday a " bill of fare " is posted in this 

 room for the ensuing week, which has been inspected by the direct- 

 or, and indorsed by him. The students are continually under the 

 eye of certain officers — " surveillants " — who have their discipline in 

 charge during the hours of study. On Sundays the students are 

 permitted to go outside the school, the roll being called at 11.30 p. m. 

 On the first Sunday of every month they are allowed to remain out 

 until 12.30, that they may attend the theatres in the city. They are 

 only allowed to receive visitors at certain hours, and in rooms near 

 the gate appointed for the purpose. On entering the school one is 

 immediately struck with the peculiar blue frock worn by all the stu- 

 dents, which would, however, give a far better appearance of uni- 

 formity were they obliged to wear the same form of hat or cap. 



There is no state examination at the French schools as in Ger- 

 many ; on the contrary, the students are subjected to repeated ex- 

 aminations by the assistants, and at the end of each session by the 

 professors in their respective branches. The result of these sessional 

 provings is, that students found unsatisfactory are put back for a 

 year in their course, and lose the advantages of the " inttfernat," or 

 are sent from the school. The final examination for the diploma 

 of the French Government is simply a more extended sessional 

 examination. Of late, the professors have been ordered by the 

 Government to prove the students in the branches of the first two 

 sessions of their course. This examination is further distinguished 

 from the ordinary sessional in that each student must attend to two 

 sick animals in the hospital and perform three operations. (It 

 should be mentioned here that in the French schools, other Conti- 

 nental schools also, the students have a certain number of patients 

 under their entire charge during the whole course of their hospital 

 practice, being simply guided and questioned by the clinical teach- 

 ers. This amounts to the same thing as being in practice while 



