TUE YETEKLNAKY LVSTITCTIONS OF TRUSSIA. 30] 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 



The purpose of these sketelies of some of the veterinary schools 

 of tlie Continent is to atTt)r(l, if possible, tlic American people some 

 idea of tlio causes which led to their foundation, and of their weak- 

 nesses as well as their many good points. While I have entered 

 into details, as far as the means at my command offered me oppor- 

 tunity, of those of France and Austria, I have reserved those of 

 Prussia to the last, in order to notice them more in detail : first, be- 

 cause many of the regulations wliich m'c shall at present consider are 

 more or less connnon to the German Emj)ire ; and, second, because, 

 taken as a whole, I believe these institutions better capable of serv- 

 ing as a model for us to follow after, with necessary modifications 

 according to our peculiar conditions, than those of any other coun- 

 try. I do not claim for them perfection, as some people seem to 

 think, nor do I desire to ingraft them wholesale and inconsiderately 

 upon the institutions of this country, as some ignorant persons have 

 affirmed. 



The Veterinary Institute at Berlin. 



This school covers, so far as I am aware, the largest tract of land 

 of any of the European veterinary schools. It is situated on Loui- 

 sen-strasse, opposite the noted C'haritu Hospital, and occujmcs some six 

 acres of ground. It was founded in 17S0, but was not opened until 

 1790. The causes which led to its foundation w'ere the losses wliich 

 the nation had repeatedly suffered from devastating animal pests, 

 especially tlie cattle-plague, against which every endeavor of the state 

 had been utterly powerless. In the address, previously given, from 

 Professor Feser, of Munich, we have shown the part wliich Cothe- 

 nius took in the matter, although the idea undoubtedly originated in 

 the mind of the king, Frederick the Great ; the school was organ- 

 ized, however, under his successor, Frederick AVilliam II. The 

 school has been under the supervision of different ofUccrs of the 

 Government, being at first controlled by the chief ofiicial of the 

 royal stables, Graf Lindenau ; in 1817 it was transferred to the 

 Ministers of "War and the Interior; in 1817 to the Minister of the 

 Medical Institutions, etc., and finally, in 1872, to the Minister of 

 Agriculture, where it still remains. The instniction at the school 

 was at first very elementary, its purpose being to educate young 

 farriers, quite in contradiction to the express purposes for which the 

 school was supposed to be founded. Professors Neumann and Sick 

 conducted the instniction, the first having been sent to Alfort, the 

 latter to Vienna, to study veterinary medicine at the expense of the 

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