BREEDING OF HORSES IN FRANCE. 
299 
whom are different services conducted by inspector-generals, di- 
rectors of the haras, and directors of the depots of entire horses, & c. 
The most useful institutions, however, springing out of and attached 
to the system of these haras, are doubtless those of the “ royal ve- 
terinary schools” and “ royal vergeries,” the latter a kind of horse 
folds, as it may be said. The advancement of veterinary science 
by training scientifically to the practice persons of superior general 
attainments, and thus elevating to the dignity of a profession an 
art hitherto abandoned to a class of men of such low degree as to 
be without pretensions to more than the commonest rudiments of 
education, when any at all, has long been felt in this country to be 
a consummation earnestly to be wished, but of which the means to 
the end could not exactly be comprehended without the intervention 
of the state, which was not a very probable event. In France, 
however, the object is at once attained, or in progress, by these 
veterinary schools, of the principles on which founded and to be 
governed the following outline may perhaps be of some interest 
generally. There are three of these schools, one at Alfort, near 
Paris, another at Lyons, and a third at Toulouse. Any one is 
admissible into these schools from sixteen to twenty-five years of 
age ; some at the charge of parents, others entitled to a whole or a 
half bourse, which would seem something like the exhibitions for 
the universities attached to various grammar-school foundations 
here. The charge for board and education is 360 francs per annum, 
or about £14.. 8s., payable quarterly, and in advance. All the pupils 
are subject to the same regime, clothed in the same manner, and 
receive the same instruction. The time of entrance is fixed for the 
first Monday in October of each year. No one can be admitted 
without the authorization of the Minister of Agriculture and Com- 
merce : the candidates authorized to present themselves do not de- 
finitively take rank among the pupils until, on examination before 
a competent jury, they are proved to possess the requisite condi- 
tions, which are, to be able to read and write correctly, and to forge 
a horse or ox shoe, en deux chaudes, a technical expression which 
seems to imply the making the shoe in two heats, or whilst the 
iron is twice heated in the fire for the operation. Every request 
for authorization to enter into the veterinary schools must be 
addressed to the Minister of Agriculture before the 1st of 
September at latest, with a copy of the register of birth of 
the petitioner, a certificate of good conduct, and an attestation 
that he has been vaccinated, or has had the small pox. 
The Government defrays the expense of one hundred and 
twenty bourses, one for each department, at the nomination of the 
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce upon the presentation of 
the Prefect, and thirty-four on the direct nomination of the Minis- 
ter. These bourses are all divided into half bourses. In order to 
