392 
COM PTE RENDU OF THE 
last pretext should be taken from those who profess to doubt the 
utility of our schools, and reproach them with being only hippiatrists. 
The minister of agriculture has insisted on the necessity of an ex- 
tension of the study of the diseases of cattle and their mode of treat- 
ment. Wishing to favour the instruction of the pupils, he has 
ordered that all oxen and cows shall be fed and treated gratuit- 
ously ; and by a still more recent regulation he has extended this 
measure to sheep and pigs. 
On his part the municipal authorities have lent their kind assist- 
ance to facilitate this species of study, and have made generous 
efforts to diminish the obstacles which oppose the introduction of 
cattle into the town. The mayor of Lyons has given orders that, in 
future, all sick cattle proceeding to the veterinary school shall be 
exempt from toll. These favourable measures have already begun 
to produce good effects. They have been enforced but a very few 
months, and we have already had 16 head of cattle and 23 sheep in 
the hospital, and nearly as many out-door patients. Nevertheless 
we must not hope to see any great number of ruminants among the 
patients of the school ; because on one hand, it is not always easy 
to transport the sick animals from place to place, and on the other 
hand, the farmer prefers taking care of his milch cows himself, and 
deriving all the profit he can from them, and can only be brought 
to part with them when they become incurable or cease to yield 
any further produce. 
Among the cows received into the hospital, four died; one 
from indigestion, had too strong a dose of ammonia given to it be- 
fore it came to us ; another from a wound penetrating the thorax, 
the abdomen, and the small intestine ; the two others from pleuro- 
pneumonia. Those that were cured were chiefly suffering from 
affections of the respiratory organs, the digestive apparatus, and the 
teats. 
Those cattle that were brought for consultation were mostly 
affected with similar complaints, but none of them very serious. 
The 107 cows that were out-door patients were mostly labour- 
ing under some of those accidents which accompany or precede 
parturition. 
Among the 69 sheep admitted into the hospital, turnsick, the 
fly, and foot-rot, were the predominating complaints. Several of 
these animals, which were brought for the purpose of being cas- 
trated, served to demonstrate the peculiar manner of perform- 
ing the operation. The owners generally preferred the bistournage, 
although it does not render the flesh so firm as the fouettage, be- 
cause they fear the accidents that are almost inseparable from the 
latter mode of proceeding. 
Thus, in the school at Lyons, 139 head of cattle, and 69 sheep 
