TUITION IN OUR VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 731 
should lay by in our memories all the facts and theories we 
heard in five hours out of the twenty-four, besides dissecting, 
patient-visiting, and other important duties ? I will not dwell 
upon the ridiculous spectacle of a man, learned himself in the 
subject, he teaches, coming before his class, and reading 
written matter which he has himself copied from sources 
accessible to his students, and which matter will have to be 
carefully read, perhaps, over and over again by these students 
before it is impressed on their memories ; or it may be that he 
gives extempore what he knows of the subject. Let him 
know, his subject never so well, and his mode of communi- 
cating his knowledge be faultless, he is wasting his time and 
the time of his hearers, when they have everything he 
can tell them printed legibly and intelligibly in their text- 
books. 
No man can acquire a knowledge of anatomy elsewhere 
than in the dissecting-room ; of chemistry elsewhere than in 
the laboratory ; of pathology elsewhere than clinically. But 
some will say that they know men who got their diplomas 
without dissection, without laboratory instruction, and with- 
out clinical instruction. So have I. It would be super- 
fluous and uncalled for on my part to use words in proving that 
these men did not know these subjects, but that their tongues 
had been trained to speak glibly and knowingly about them. 
A man who has not dissected carefully can be no better for 
knowing the course of an artery he is required to tie, when 
he has not the manipulative dexterity required in tying it. A 
man who knows the blow-tube test for the substance which 
he is required to test with the blow-tube, and cannot mani- 
pulate the blow-tube, his knowledge of the test is next to 
worthless to him. A man who has never heard the sounds, 
who has never seen the sights, and who has never handled 
certain portions of the body labouring under diseases which 
present these sounds, sights, &c., can do nothing but draw 
upon his imagination when hearing them, however graphi- 
cally described. He cannot apply what he hears in the 
lecture-room when he enters the sick-box. 
Nearly all lecturers I talk to on the subject acknowledge 
that it is a farce they are actors in, and lament that these 
absurdities should exist. 
Knowledge is for the most part of little value to us as 
medical men which does not render us capable of performing 
certain duties. I know lecturers will say that “ if we lecture 
on anatomy, we also demonstrate and dissect the subject with 
our pupils ; if we lecture on experimental chemistry, we also 
give laboratory instruction ; if we lecture on pathology, and 
