A VISIT TO A L FORT IN 1844. 
367 
it not been for experimental physiology and vivesection ! To the 
affirmative to this we most fully concur ; but that the young and 
rising members of the veterinary profession are to be taught, ankle- 
deep in living blood, by the “ vivesection” of that class of ani- 
mals on which they are, in after-life, to exert their professional 
skill, the structure and functions of their various organs, is what 
cannot for a moment be admitted by any one knowing thoroughly 
the elements of the science. We, on the contrary, affirm with 
every confidence, that no benefit has ever been conferred on prac- 
tical veterinary medicine and surgery but by experiments having 
been conducted by veterans in its study, and where these were 
had recourse to under the most judicious and well-directed consider- 
ations. A child may be 
“ Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw 
and so, it would appear, that in this present golden age of im- 
provement it behoveth the directors of one of the most liberal 
and valuable of our veterinary institutions still to adopt and pro- 
miscuously permit their “ young ideas” to be taught by the cruel, 
uncalled-for, and abominable practice of “ vivesection.” 
We have been induced to make the above remarks in conse- 
quence of observing in a work published a few days ago, entitled 
“ Notes and Remarks on Jersey, France, and Italy, by J. Burn 
Murdoch, Esq., of Gartincaber, Edinburgh, 1846,” an account of 
a Visit to the Veterinary School of Alfort in 1844, and where the 
cruelties of “ vivesection” still continue to be adopted as a method 
of teaching. 
Mr. Murdoch, from his long and intimate connexion with the 
education of veterinary surgeons, and the enthusiasm and zeal 
with which he has made himself familiar with all the details of 
the schools in this country, and elsewhere, when opportunity of- 
fered, is especially qualified to judge*; and as his description of 
the “ scene” he encountered is very short and graphic, we shall 
abstract it entire for the benefit of our readers : — 
“ I visited,” says Mr. Murdoch, “ the veterinary college at 
Alfort, June 17, 1844, distant a few miles from Paris. On my way 
to the Palais Royal, where I intended to hire a cab to carry me to 
Alfort, I met in the omnibus a very intelligent old soldier. Upon 
mentioning to him my intention of visiting the institution, he asked 
* We may mention that Mr. Burn Murdoch has been for very many years 
the Chairman of the Veterinary Committee of the Highland and Agricultural 
Society of Scotland, and, until the obtaining of the recent Charter of Incor- 
poration, presided over the annual examinations of the pupils taught at the 
Edinburgh school. Mr. Murdoch was not an “ amateur” vet., but, on the 
contrary, studied the science as it ought to be, and passed many a good 
examination. 
