THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 329 



they not have been detested while livmg, and held in 

 lasting execration when dead ? But these operations 

 on the living subject teach the youngster how to ac- 

 commodate himself to the struggles of the animal, how 

 to feather his lines with mathematical exactness, and 

 to acquaint himself with the true colour produced by 

 the iron when it has seered the skin sufficiently deep 1 

 Would not one or two operations on the real patient 

 have given all that would be necessary, without en~ 

 gaging the conservators of the health and enjoyment 

 of the horse in the functions of demons, and giving 

 them an indifference to suffering and a callousness 

 of feeling which taints the whole course of their after 

 practice V 



That school wants reform w^hich, by the dearth 

 of operations that are committed to the pupils, tempts 

 to the commission of atrocities like these. Every 

 pupil after having been compelled to operate once or 

 twice or thrice on the dead subject before the professor, 

 should in his turn be called on to operate on the diffe- 

 rent cases which are brought to the college. Under 

 the immediate inspection of the professor there could 

 be no danger to the patient; and one operation, every 

 step of which was guided and directed by the professor, 

 would be more useful to the student than a hundred at 

 the knacker's yard ; but according to the present sys- 

 tem, nearly all the operations are performed by the 

 assistant-professor, and the demonstrator and the 

 pupils are permitted only to look on. Some alteration 

 is here imperiously required. 



2 V 



