62 [Assembly 



State Agricultural college, the forcible and intelligent notice of 

 the members, who composed that committee, appears to have been 

 drawn to the co-incidental claims of veterinary education. Some 

 highly valuable and discriminating observations were engrafted 

 on said report, in relation to the subject matter involved gener- 

 ally, and this in advocacy of State encouragement and support to 

 and for a veterinary collegiate institution. All the governments 

 of Europe, and particularly those of England and France, have 

 promoted this important domestic science, through the same 

 means by which human medicine and surgery have been advanc- 

 ed ; namely, conferring on it the influence of State opinion and 

 approbation, and aiding it with grants or endowments. 



In the said legislative- report, it has been excellently and well 

 expressed and represented, that " the great importance of the 

 science and practice of the veterinary art will be universally ad- 

 mitted; and there are some considerations pertaining to this part 

 of the subject, that seem to call with much force, for the establish- 

 ment of a State Institution, for the improvement of this art;" 

 that "by the census of 1845, there were of domestic animals in 

 this State: horses and mules, 505,155; cattle, 2,072,330 ; sheep, 

 6,443,858; and swine, 1,584,344;" and, that ''it cannot but be 

 confessed that the treatment of diseases among domestic animals 

 is not founded on scientific principles, and is too often confided to 

 hands that are neither skilful nor humane; and that it can not be 

 doubted that a careful 'nquiry into the principles of the veterinary 

 art, would lead to better remedies, and a more rational and satis- 

 factory mode of applying them." 



It may not inaptly be observed, that in this State there is an 

 average of about one horse to eve^y five inhabitants, while in 

 Britain there is only one to every twelve or thirteen inhabitants. 

 In France, the dieproportion is considerably greater ; and in other 

 European countries greater still. But in Britain there are several 

 veterinary institutions, and skilful practitioners of the art are 

 numerously diffused over the rural districts, and in cities and 

 villages; and in France the profession has taken up important 

 ground. Whereas, in the United States, there are so few practi- 

 tioners, who have enjoyed the means of fundamental and adequate 



