TEE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 327 



or governor in this country, and this in Germany, where American- 

 ism is sneered at. There was this difference, the wire-pulling was 

 done by men of unquestionable ability in some directions, but neither 

 one of the candidates was fitted to carry on the work of progress. 

 They were all good men, but unfortunately had too much of the old 

 school about them to meet the demands of the time. The Govern- 

 ment seemed to be entirely ignorant of the great failing of the 

 school, which is the surgical clinic, and everything pertaining to it. 

 An utter want of practical horsemanship runs through the whole 

 thing. The treatment of internal diseases leaves nothing to be 

 desired, but the external treatment, in many cases, may be truly ex- 

 pressed by the English word " botch." There had never been any real 

 practical surgery taught at the school. A great many operations are 

 made, but seldom handsomely. The opportunity to reform all this 

 was placed at the disposal of the German Government. But there 

 was no one to inform it, and how should the ministers know ? The 

 opportunity was there to reform the surgical clinic, but, what is still 



more to the point, the man was there also. Dr. knew that a 



school hospital is for the purpose of instructing students, and that 

 the curing of patients, so long as the interests of the owner are re- 

 spected, is a matter of secondary importance. The death-rate was 

 perhaps a little large, but the number of recoveries in desperate 

 cases more than counterbalanced it. Our clinical instruction was 

 really magnificent. He knew, better than any one at the school, its 

 greatest failure, and studied night and day as to the best means of 

 overcoming it. One great mistake and waste of material at the 

 Berlin school, one which clearly demonstrates that from the begin- 

 ning the aim of education in a given direction was never understood 

 (it is the same at the French school), is the way in which the stu- 

 dents practice operative surgery. It is 'plain butchery, not sur- 

 gery. What sense is there in merely cutting certain nerves, opening 

 certain cavities, ligaturing an artery or two, upon a living animal, 

 though it be chloroformed ? The students learn to cut, not to op- 

 erate. Is cutting the whole of surgery ? In human medicine they 

 learn to cut upon the cadaver, and it can be done equally well in 

 veterinary medicine. But I none the less believe in taking advan- 

 tage of our ability of practicing operative surgery upon the living 

 animal in veterinary medicine, vihen chloroformed. But if this is 

 limited to mere cutting, it is but butchery. To he practical, the 

 necessary number of horses should be procured by the school, prop- 

 erly groomed and fed ; the students to operate should be selected ; 

 they should be privileged to select their assistants from their col- 



