THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 309 



animal products which would otherwise be offered for consumption 

 as articles of food). The veterinary schools are not, therefore, 

 founded for the education of mere curers / they are not instituted 

 to send raw empirics into the land, for in such cases the aims of 

 veterinary medicine are by no means attained. Such empirics 

 were plenty enough long before the foundation of the veterinary 

 schools ; and only because of their utter uselessness to the state were 

 the veterinary schools founded, in order that veterinarians could be 

 had suitable to the higher purposes which the public necessities de- 

 manded. 



" In order to prove the correctness of this assertion, it is neces- 

 sary to refer to the history of the veterinary schools. We must know 

 why these schools were really founded, what necessity they were 

 expected to fill, and how observing men thought this end was 

 best to be attained. 



"To this purpose nothing serves better than the address deliv- 

 ered by Cothenius, body- surgeon to Frederick the Great of Prussia, 

 before the Academy of Sciences on the 21st of January, 1768, be- 

 fore there was any veterinary school in Germany. Cothenius first 

 demonstrated from the records of history that in antiquity, and fol- 

 lowing down to his time, devastating animal plagues had always ex- 

 isted, which produced immense misery to the people, and concluded 

 with the advice that only veterinary schools had the power to give 

 the means of freeing the nation from these plagues ; but he placed 

 great emphasis upon the necessity of an exact fundamental educa- 

 tion, giving a plan for their establishment which is well worthy 

 our present consideration, though elucidated over one hundred 

 years since. He knew very well that at that time there was no thor- 

 ough plan of education, no veterinary science, and no teachers, and 

 that for the last purpose men of great ability were necessary, for 

 they were to teach subjects of which they knew nothing, and upon 

 which there were no suitable books of reference, or other assist- 

 ance. He said : ' The first teachers must not be ashamed to be 

 themselves students ; their greatest honor must be the public admis- 

 sion of their own ignorance. The less they at present know, and 

 the more they feel the necessity of learning, the more have we rea- 

 son to hope that they will in time attain to that degree of perfection 

 which they so much desire.' Thus we see that Cothenius well ap- 

 preciated the only way by which veterinary science was to be suc- 

 cessfully developed. He looked upon this task from a purely scien- 

 tific stand-point, and well knew that progress was only to be at- 

 tained by the methods and assistance of scientific research. To 



