THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 319 



fessor Carl Yoit has done this in a very thorough manner. Accord- 

 ing to him, it is not so necessary to consider the improvement of 

 individual evils which are evident to us, but above all a change 

 is necessary in the direction of the school, without which great exer- 

 tions of both teachers and pupils can never lead to promising results. 

 The causes why the Bavarian school has not developed into the in- 

 stitution which it was expected it would, are to be sought, mostly, 

 in the absolute neglect of those basal conditions upon which such a 

 school can alone thrive. Such a school, to thrive, must he placed 

 upon a scientific foundation. The first means by which this end is 

 to be attained is a general and exact preparatory education of young 

 men before they enter the school. The preparatory education of 

 the students up to this time has been totally insufficient for them to 

 be able to comprehend well the teachings of their technical teach- 

 ers. To the study of veterinary medicine the same degree of pre- 

 liminary education is necessary that is required for entering upon 

 the study of human medicine, and without this the best teaching 

 will be resultless. 



" The second condition to improvement is, that all students 

 must be well grounded in the necessary natural sciences before 

 entering the school. It is absolutely certain that this should also 

 be of the same grade as for the students of medicine. The study 

 of the natural sciences in the school itself must be completed 

 before the technical branches of the profession are entered upon. 

 It is impossible for the student to comprehend the teachings in 

 physiology without a thorough anticipatory education in physics 

 and chemistry. The thorough study of the natural sciences is the 

 only means by which the student can learn to become a good experi- 

 menter, or learn to think logically, or understand the processes of dis- 

 eases and their products " (Voit). The present students have never 

 learned to think, because of the want of a thorough drilling in sci- 

 entific methods ; it is this reason, and not because of want of disci- 

 pline, that has made the results of teaching at our school so futile. 

 " Or is it to be looked upon as a favorable result that out of twenty 

 students, only five, and of these only two Bavarians, successfully 

 passed their final examination after three years' study ? The evil 

 is to be sought in the system." 



Only when a rigid education in the necessary branches of gen- 

 eral science is required as a preparation, can the teachers hope for 

 genuine success from the study of the strictly professional branches. 

 From men thus educated can we alone hope to select those fitted for 

 teachers. 



