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EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
This point being admitted, it follows that no college is 
competent to instruct its students effectively until it has 
succeeded in obtaining ample means for clinical tuition, and 
in this view of the subject the admission of free patients is 
quite desirable even if it can be shown that it is not 
indispensable. 
Again, there is a palpable advantage gained by the re- 
ception of gratis patients, as they may be termed, in so far 
as they are certain to consist, for the most part, of animals 
of inferior value, and which may therefore be, without 
hesitation, placed in the charge of pupils who could not be 
permitted to practise upon the more valuable patients. This 
last statement is advanced simply and plainly with a full 
recognition of the extent of misapprehension to which it is 
calculated to give rise. The popular prejudice against 
hospitals was formerly, and in some degree is now, bound 
up with the firm belief that the sole object of the authorities 
in providing receptacles for the indigent sick, was to afford 
young doctors subjects on which to “practise.” In the case 
of veterinary infirmaries we do not scruple to admit that 
this is the primary reason for the admission of horses and 
other animals without charges to those owners who cannot 
well afford to incur them. 
Having allowed so much, we must proceed to explain what 
we understand by “pupils practising.” It is hardly necessary, 
in the first place, to clear the way by the remark that idle, 
unmeaning, or cruel experiments are not included; the idea 
that giving various medicines for the mere purpose of seeing 
what effect they will have upon the disease is “practising” is 
certainly not held by scientific men, and perhaps by very 
few unscientific men, excepting those who are quite illiterate. 
What we mean by pupils having facilities for practising is, 
their being entrusted with the performance of minor 
operations, administration of medicines, and the general 
treatment of sick animals. It is true that they might 
safely be allowed to do the same things in the case of a 
valuable animal, but neither the owners nor the authorities 
care to incur even a remote risk of injury from unskilful 
manipulation, and any ill consequences which might follow 
