368 
A VISIT TO A L FORT IN 1844. 
me if I had an order of admission. Upon being answered in the 
negative, he informed me that it was not shewn to the public; but 
he very politely gave me his card and introduction to the governor, 
to whom he mentioned, as an old comrade in the army, he was well 
known. It was fortunate that I had entered into conversation with 
this gentleman, his information being quite correct. I could not 
have seen the college without this introduction. His card shewed 
him to be a military man, holding the rank of Chef d’Escadron. 
M. Blanc, the governor, was at home, and in the most polite 
manner went over the whole establishment with us. It is entirely 
supported by the Government, and, like all other institutions of 
the kind in France, completely under its control. There are seven 
or eight professors, and at present the number of students is 250. 
The course of study extends to four years. At the end of this pe- 
riod the students are taken on trial. If they pass the requisite 
examination, they obtain their diploma. If they are unable to pass, 
they are remitted to their studies for another year, and are then 
again taken upon trial ; and if a second time unsuccessful, they are 
dismissed from the college. 
The students all live in the building, and pay nothing. A 
large space of ground, or small farm, and a botanic garden, are 
attached to the College, on which are cultivated the several varie- 
ties of the most common agricultural productions, and the plants 
used in the different pharmaceutic preparations of the veterinary 
pharmacopoeia, the students thus being instructed in practical, 
agricultural, and pharmaceutic botany. 
The institution also contains a large hospital for dogs (which 
was quite full at the time), and a museum of anatomical prepara- 
tions, formed on a very extensive scale. The grounds immediately 
around the building are tastefully laid out and planted, and, the 
day of our visit being fine, the students were dispersed in small 
groups in shady places, diligently studying a small manual, from 
which it appeared to me that they were committing portions to 
memory. The whole had, indeed, a very academic appearance. 
I wish I could now bring my narration of what I that day there 
saw to a close ; but I must not. Upon entering into what ap- 
peared to be a place of dissection, I found myself surrounded, not 
by dead , but by living subjects. It was a building or shed open to 
the air on one side, furnished with many strong pillars rising from 
the floor to the roof. Here lay six , if not seven , living horses , fixed 
by every possible mechanical device, by the head and feet, to these 
pillars, to prevent their struggling, and upon each horse were six 
or seven pupils engaged in performing the different surgical ope- 
rations. The sight was truly horrible. 
“ The operations had been begun early in the forenoon ; it 
