THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 321 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 



The purpose of these sketches of some of the veterinary schools 

 of the Continent is to afford, if possible, the American people some 

 idea of the causes which led to their foundation, and of their weak- 

 nesses as well as their many good points. While I have entered 

 into details, as far as the means at my command oifered me oppor- 

 tunity, of those of France and Austria, I have reserved those of 

 Prussia to the last, in order to notice them more in detail : first, be- 

 cause many of the regulations which we shall at present consider are 

 more or less common to the German Empire ; and, second, because, 

 taken as a whole, I believe these institutions better capable of serv- 

 ing as a model for us to follow after, with necessary modifications 

 according to our peculiar conditions, than those of any other coun- 

 try. I do not claim for them perfection, as some people seem to 

 think, nor do I desire to ingraft them wholesale and inconsiderately 

 upon the institutions of this country, as some ignorant persons have 



affirmed. 



The Veterinary Institute at Berlin. 



This school covers, so far as I am aware, the largest tract of land 

 of any of the European veterinary schools. It is situated on Loui- 

 sen-strasse, opposite the noted Charite Hospital, and occupies some six 

 acres of ground. It was founded in 1786, but was not opened until 

 1790. The causes which led to its foundation were the losses which 

 the nation had repeatedly suffered from devastating animal pests, 

 especially the cattle-plague, against which every endeavor of the state 

 had been utterly powerless. In the address, previously given, from 

 Professor Feser, of Munich, we have shown the part which Cothe- 

 nius took in the matter, although the idea undoubtedly originated in 

 the mind of the king, Frederick the Great ; the school was organ- 

 ized, however, under his successor, Frederick William II. The 

 school has been under the supervision of different officers of the 

 Government, being at first controlled by the chief official of the 

 royal stables, Graf Lindenau ; in 1817 it was transferred to the 

 Ministers of War and the Interior ; in 1847 to the Minister of the 

 Medical Institutions, etc., and finally, in 1872, to the Minister of 

 Agriculture, where it still remains. The instruction at the school 

 was at first very elementary, its purpose being to educate young 

 farriers, quite in contradiction to the express purposes for which the 

 school was supposed to be founded. Professors Neumann and Sick 

 conducted the instruction, the first having been sent to Alfort, the 

 latter to Yienna, to study veterinary medicine at the expense of the 



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