312 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 



dents who gained admittance from the " real schools " were aston- 

 ished thereby, and scorned to make notes upon the nonsense which 

 they heard from the lecturer at the desks of the school. There was 

 neither chemical laboratory nor physical cabinet, but every " real 

 school" had these long before 1852, and all the attributes necessary 

 to good elementary instruction in natural science. 



Let it remain so ! We will not follow this sad relation further. 

 You will believe me, however, that with the exception of anatomy, 

 the conditions were no more flattering with reference to the purely 

 veterinary branches than with the natural sciences upon which they 

 are founded. One would naturally assume that, although the scien- 

 tific side of our education was so much neglected, the students at 

 least received a good practical education. On the contrary, that 

 was not the case. 



Let us see if we can not discover the causes of this neglect of 

 the teachings of Cothenius. 



To this end we must again have reference to the general history 

 of the schools, and bear in mind the extravagances of the first French 

 schools, to which many evil influences may be justly attributed. 



Two schools (Lyons and Alfort) were organized in France some 

 years before the foundation of any in Germany. The Alfort school 

 was larger than that at Lyons, and received from the beginning 

 great attention and care from the Government. The fittings of the 

 school exceeded those of the German schools, even in our day, and 

 every condition was present to attain the ends which should be re- 

 quired of a school except fitting teachers and promoting veterinary 

 science. Suitable teachers are and ever will he the chief desidera- 

 tum ; without them all donations of money are useless. This was 

 soon experienced by the French schools. Instead of proceeding in 

 the manner indicated by Cothenius, and first paying their attention 

 to the development of proper teachers, they sought at once to make 

 the world wise by a display of superficial knowledge. The students 

 were educated in a manner to produce superficial but ready talkers, 

 but not to become methodical and educated veterinarians. The Al- 

 fort school especially sought to gain an acknowledgment of supe- 

 riority from other nations, which was, indeed, attained, but not with- 

 out great injury to herself. Chairs for agriculture, comparative 

 anatomy, natural sciences, animal painting, etc., were even then 

 attained, although the raw empirical material at command had by 

 no means been sufficiently culled out. The students must at once 

 be educated to be obstetricians, wound and eye doctors, coroners, 

 etc., in order to fill the wants of the country in this regard. They 



