CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OP DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 149 



Others of the schools, and uotably those of France, give iustrnctiou 

 in modern languages and literature, which Ungues holds should be 

 obtained before enteriug the veterinary S(;hool, To further reHeve the 

 curriculum and give more time to the exclusively professional studies, 

 he would abolish the class on constitutional law, that on shoeing, and 

 even that on special pathology as taught from the chair, thus throwing 

 the student back on books and clinical teacliing for instruction in the 

 practice of medicine. The need ot some rebef is well illustrated in the 

 fact that a large proportion of students to-day exceed the allotted period 

 of study preliminary to taking a degree. Thus at Brussels in former 

 times a failure to pass in four years was altogether exceptional, while 

 under the modern crowding of studies but 33 out of 77 students have 

 passed in this prescribed period ; of the remaining 44 students 20 took 

 live years, 20 six j'ears, 1 seven years, and 3 eight ytiirs. 



The curriculum has greatly outstri[)ped the ability of the student to 

 cope with it, and the two should be adjusted so that the majority may 

 be able to graduate in the prescribed period. Though something may 

 be done in eliminating subjects that are not purely professional, yet, 

 with the rapid advancement of science, the exclusively professional 

 work incumbent on the student tends constantly to increase, and the 

 strain must be met by securing a better preliminary training, and by 

 extending the curriculum to five years. Thus, for admission to the 

 school, a knowledge of one or more modern languages should be de- 

 manded; those of the adjoining countries being always valuable as 

 giving a rey to their literature and as being essential in the adminis- 

 tration of sanitary police. The rudiments of. Latin are very useful, 

 but not indis|)ensable. National and foreign literature have no occa- 

 sion to appear in the curriculum, and should not be a condition of en- 

 trance. So of mathematics and the natural sciences. If the same could 

 be applied to physics and chemistry it would be well, but this would be 

 asking too much of a boy of seventeen, and would endanger superticial- 

 ity in all. 



Then. if the curriculum were extended to five years, the present double 

 examination might be profitably extended to three; the first in sciences, 

 the second as candidate in veterinary medicine, on anatomy, })hysiology, 

 histology, physics, chemistry, and perhai)S the exterior, and the third 

 one, pathological biology, therapeutics, surgery, clinics, hygiene, zoo- 

 technnics, sanitary i)olice, &c. 



The examining boards should be composed of the faculty of the school 

 and a certain i)roportion of veterinary practitioners. This will tend to 

 correct any tendency in the schools to a too exclusive attention to sci- 

 entific minutia' at the exi)ense of the even more important matters of 

 daily practice, and give a special value and guarantee to the examina- 

 tion and diploma. On the other hand, the intimate knowledge of the 

 candidate on the part of the professor will enable the board to qualify 



