430 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 



give them time for reviewing. The members of the graduating 

 class should also be allowed to oversee the students in the anatomi- 

 cal laboratory — a certain number at a time — in order that they may 

 have a final opportunity to refresh their minds in this important 

 branch before appearing for examination. 



This plan of study is doubtless open to improvement, but I ven- 

 ture to say that it is better than any at present followed. Its aim 

 is to unite theory and practice to the fullest possible degree. 



At the end of the eighth session the students will appear for 

 their final examination. Written examinations — with the exception 

 of a portion of the clinical — are a farce. The aim of an examina- 

 tion is to ascertain the real ability of the candidates. Originality 

 of expression should be cultivated, and the teachers should endeavor 

 to place the ^'' jparrots^'' or book - repeaters, where they belong. 

 Grade examinations, "good," "better," "best," are another farce. 

 The school should have but one standard — either a student passes 

 a satisfactory examination, or it is pronounced xLiisatisfactory. 

 The fate of the "first men in their classes" in the arena of the 

 world is too often otherwise than that which is expected. All 

 students passing an unsatisfactory examination should be put back 

 one year, and forfeit all rights to the refunding of their fees for 

 any part of the term. The director should signify the special lec- 

 tures they must attend. 



A list of each year's graduates should be published in the school 

 organ, as well as in the leading agricultural and sporting papers. 

 The secretary of the Board of Health of the State fi'om which each 

 graduate comes, as well as the presiding officer of his native place, 

 are to be notified of the candidate's graduation, which must be pub- 

 lished in a public print of the place. All State boards of health 

 should also receive an official list of each year's graduates. 



The writer would also seriously recommend the idea of endeav- 

 oring to introduce into the country a more intelligent and trust- 

 worthy class of grooms and coachmen, and to this end would suggest 

 that the attendants in the stal^le be young men from fifteen to nine- 

 teen years old, who can read and write ; that their pay be merely 

 nominal, but enough to feed and clothe them, and that they have, 

 from the superintendent of the clinic, lectures on treatment, on 

 stable hygiene, and feeding, carefully illustrating the dangers of in- 

 considerate and inopportune feeding; fi'om the lecturer on horse- 

 shoeing, special general lectures on the care of the foot in health ; 

 and from the lecturer on physiology, some general lectures on physi- 

 ology. Such a course would, it seems to me, be nationally benefi- 



