A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 427 



to graduate at the end of three years ; I found it necessary to remain 

 nearly a year longer to fill up the vacuums, which were perceptible 

 to myself, in my education to fit myself for the work I had under- 

 taken, and to feel warranted in claiming that I really had an edu- 

 cation with a scientific foundation ; and had not my health and 

 means both been pretty well exhausted, I should have certainly add- 

 ed a year more to my school-days. Still, they are not ended ; the 

 real student is always at school, whether in his own laboratory, or 

 busy about practice, or enjoying a vacation. The educated mind is 

 never without material for study. A scarcity of immediate objects 

 of interest is often necessary in order that time may be gained for 

 skeptical reflection. The word " skeptic " is used in the sense of 

 critical, not in an anti-religious sense, as unreflecting people seem 

 always to think necessary. The same is true of the word " radical," 

 which means " root," or one who endeavors to go to the root of a 

 matter ; but the highly educated representatives of the American 

 press seem to think it should only be applied to spiritualists, free- 

 lovers, or other similar eccentricities of weak-minded men and 

 women. Pardon these few digressive words. 



An inexcusable mistake of all veterinary schools, and many medi- 

 cal as well, is, that the school-year for freshmen is arranged to begin 

 in the fall. Every teacher that has had experience, and who makes 

 a study of his work — that is, how he can best present his subjects to 

 the students (and no other men should ever be teachers), if capable 

 of making any practical observations upon the difficulties which 

 students have to overcome — must realize that to jump them into the 

 studies of a general first winter course, as they now are, without 

 any preparation, is but a waste of time and source of anxiety to the 

 student, and aggravation to the teachers. The time for students to 

 enter upon the study of medicine should be fixed for about the mid- 

 dle of March, and the four-years session should end at the same 

 time. The studies of this first term, from March 15th to August 

 1st, should be osteology, chemistry, physics, and botany. The man- 

 ner in which osteology is at present taught in most schools is little 

 more than a farce ; the student learns the bones, it is true, their pro- 

 tuberances, muscular insertions, and cavities, but beyond this he 

 seldom gets. Bones are indeed a dry subject. This is all wrong. 

 There is no branch of medical study which can be made more inter- 

 esting and instructive than this, and, unless it is taught in a truly 

 scientific manner, the name might as well be stricken from the cur- 

 riculum of a school. It should first begin with the development of 

 bone-tissue in general, demonstrated by the teacher upon the board ; 



