402 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 



sons are we to draw from the foregoing pages with reference to the 

 establishment of veterinary schools in this country ? 



1. It would be an unpardonable sin to curse the people of this 

 country with another set of private, unregulated, irresponsible medi- 

 cal institutions. 



2. Under such a system of schools the title " Veterinary Sur- 

 geon," or any other to be selected, would be, as it is now, worthless, 

 being assumed alike by graduated men, empirics, and veritable 

 quacks. 



3. It neither protects the people, by giving them a reliable 

 means by which they can distinguish the approved man from the 

 impostor, nor does it protect the honest and hard work of the 

 school graduate. 



4. It can never, until eternity, answer the manifold needs of the 

 country, or produce, what is more needed than in human medicine, 

 really scientifically qualified veterinary practitioners, who, while 

 capable of attending to the practical demands of the public, are no 

 less capable of meeting the scientific requirements of the State, in 

 taking an active part in the study of and prevention of those animal 

 diseases which carry misery and desolation to mankind, as well as 

 threaten their health and life in some cases. 



Equally to be condemned with the above are private veterinary 

 schools supported by subscription. They would not deserve any 

 additional consideration were it not that this plan has recently re- 

 ceived the indorsement of no less an authority than the Universities 

 of Pennsylvania and Harvard. 



In considering the development of veterinary medicine, and the 

 foundation of the Continental schools, we have endeavored to im- 

 press upon the reader the fact that these institutions were estab- 

 lished by the respective governments, and have always been con- 

 trolled by them, thereby guaranteeing, so far as possible, the quality 

 of their graduates to the people. The result has been, that all these 

 institutions have been steadily improved, until at the present day, 

 and for some thirty years back, many of them have acquired the 

 right to be called scientific institutions, though veterinary medi- 

 cine has not, in my opinion, yet arrived at that stage in which 

 it can be called a science. This remark requires an explanation 

 from me. In the great veterinary schools of Europe the scientific 

 method of study and research has been more or less perfectly intro- 

 duced ; but it has been adopted, almost wholesale, from human 

 medicine. Veterinary medicine has never yet produced a great 

 medical thinker. "We have not yet got beyond good observers. 



