EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
659 
its infancy express their approval of the changes that had 
taken place in it, both as it regards the facilities for study, 
and the increased means afforded to the student for acquiring 
information. 
Concurring, as we do, with the tenor of the lecture, we see 
cogent reasons why the curriculum of the veterinary stu- 
dent should be extended. There are many divisions of 
natural philosophy that bear on his studies ; and these are 
now taught both in agricultural colleges and military schools, 
and with those there educated he is brought into contact ; 
with them he has in after life to do. Besides this, he is 
without the assistance afforded to the practitioner of human 
medicine; his patients not possessing the power of speech. 
It may, on the other hand, be said, “ They never deceive : by 
symptoms the true nature of the malady under which an 
animal is laboring may be always ascertained.” But these 
are sometimes very obscure ; and hence the necessity of an 
intimate acquaintance with the means of detection ; hence, 
too, the value of practical experience, which can only result 
from time. Sound principles being inculcated, the observant 
and attentive student will soon be able to form a true 
diagnosis of disease, his familiarity with the function of parts 
when in health enabling him to detect any deviation, and his 
acquaintance with therapeutics directing him to the employ- 
ment of the proper remedies to correct this. It is thus that 
the necessity of a scientific education is shown ; and living, 
if not in an age of discovery, at least in a testing age of 
abilities to apply principles, it is absolutely necessary that 
all the required aids should be afforded the aspirant, so that 
he may acquire knowledge. 
The veterinary profession stands now in a very different 
position to what it did only a few years since. Its graduates 
are in greater requisition by the public, who have seen the 
ignorance and cruelty of the old farriers’ art supplanted 
by science; the resources of which have been made available 
both for the eradication of disease and its prevention. Nor 
has this fact been lost sight of by the governors of the 
Royal Veterinary College, who have from time to time ap- 
