A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 425 



and as this work is still scarcely begun in any country, it is suffi- 

 ciently indicated that we should endeavor to found an institution 

 where they may be especially cultivated ; and, in selecting teachers, 

 we must endeavor to obtain men of real genius. It must never be 

 forgotten that we are not advocating a school for the production of 

 horse-doctors, but, on the contrary, an institution for the develop- 

 ment of those natural sciences which serve as the foundation for 

 the study of medicine, the development of veterinary science in all 

 its branches, and the education of scientifically qualified veterinary 

 practitioners. 



The school must have the scientific spirit permeating all its work. 

 It is because our medical schools are almost all entirely wanting in 

 this particular that we have never produced a great medical scien- 

 tist. We have developed the hand-work by borrowing the elements 

 upon which it is founded from Germany and France. "What we 

 want is American science as well as American practice. Science 

 can never be developed except with state support. Sporadic up- 

 heaval may be witnessed from private endeavor, as may be seen in 

 England. It is absolutely necessary that the theoretic and practical 

 in a medical school be permeated, saturated with this scientific 

 spirit. No one who has not lived in such a spirit can realize how it 

 gradually stimulates even the drones among the students. It is like 

 the deacon and his wonderful trotters — the spirit of emulation grad- 

 ually extended to the deacon also. The students soon begin to think 

 and seek the causes of things ; researches, experiments, take more of 

 their thoughts, and, instead of learning practice by rote, they begin 

 to feel the desire to improve it, even as students. " The reason 

 why " becomes an innate part of their being. Unless this spirit is 

 shared by every teacher of such a school, in so much is it a failure. 

 Only men having this spirit, and the practical ability to let it be 

 seen in their works, are suited to be teachers. 



Such an institution as we have in mind requires considerable 

 land, ten acres not being by any means too much. It will require 

 stables for hospital use — isolated stables to quarantine animals in- 

 fected with, suspected of, or kept for experimental purposes, with 

 contagious diseases. It will require a special dog-hospital, also a 

 special stable for the use of animals to be kept for feeding and other 

 experiments. It will also require buildings for the residences of the 

 teachers, servants, and pupils, as well as for the different educational 

 purposes. 



In order that such an institution may fully fill all the demands 

 we have a right to make upon it, great circumspection must be ex- 



