J2 FRENCH COURSE OF EDUCATION. [BOOK I. 



8. Let us, then, once for all, exhort every person 

 whom horse knowledge may concern, to examine 

 the internal state of all the dead horses to which 

 he can obtain access. In or near London no dif- 

 ficulty lies in the way of a full compliance with this 

 recommendation, whilst the neighbourhoods of pro- 

 vincial towns and hunting establishments, afford a 

 sufficient number of subjects for dissection for all 

 purposes. Whatever dislike, or even disgust he 

 may feel at his first entrance upon these exami- 

 nations of dead bodies, our student may rest as- 

 sured that this will soon wear off: anatomy becomes 

 the most fascinating study we know of, when the 

 inquirer begins to discover the hidden secrets of 

 nature. Nor is the pursuit at all unhealthy, so far 

 as our own experience goes, as we recollect only 

 one case in thirty years that was offensively other- 

 wise — and this one of putrid fever, in the year 1824, 

 mentioned farther on. [See Index, Fever, Putrid.] 

 Moreover, we recently find, that a commission, ap- 



some reading, frequent lecturing, but scarcely any practice of medicine , 

 to which alone, a three years' probation ought to tend, constitutes 

 the whole of the education of army Veterinary Surgeons in the neigh- 

 bour kingdom. At least, this is precisely the case at the School of 

 Alfort, as they modestly call their establishments. At Toulouse and 

 Lyons, in the southern parts, are similar schools ; which we in Eng- 

 land more magnificently call colleges. They deem anatomy and 

 physiology all-sufficient. We (in England) neglected it as a popular 

 study, until the last few years ; our whole reliance being on physic — 

 physic, right or wrong : the wisest course, as in all similar cases, lies 

 in the medium. The French farriers are, indeed, most inveterate 

 anatomists; a fact that marks the taste for curious minute investi- 

 gations, to which the character of the nation seems prone. 



