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AN ACCOUNT OF THE VETERINARY INSTITUTION 
AT VIENNA. 
By W. R. Wilde, M.R.LA. 
Among the many noble institutions of this great country, 
well-arranged and liberally endowed as they are, there is none 
that stands more prominently forward, in a sanatory point of view, 
than the system of veterinary education and the veterinary insti- 
tute of Vienna. This truly imperial establishment, the Veterinary 
College ( Thierarzenei-Instiiut), is beautifully situated in one of 
the extensive suburbs that surround the capital. It was erected 
in 1823, chiefly through the instrumentality of the late Proto- 
medicus, Baron Stifft, who, whatever may have been his failings 
in other respects, certainly used the great influence he possessed 
with the late emperor to effect much good in erecting many valua- 
ble medical institutions in the kingdom. It is now placed under 
the direction of the university. 
This is both a military and civil academy for the education of 
the Veterinaires of the Austrian army, and also the country epi- 
zootic and general veterinary practitioners, the majority of whom 
are salaried government officers. 
The organization of this institution published in 1824, and of 
that at Milan in 1837, occupy a considerable space in the cata- 
logue of laws that regulate the medico-chirurgical studies, and 
shew the great interest they at present receive from the Austrian 
government. This institution is governed by a director, Dr. G. 
T. Eckel — a learned and ingenious man — and also five ordinary 
and four extraordinary professors. The state supports four pen- 
sioners, or bursars, at a yearly salary of 300 florins in the esta- 
blishment, who subsequently fill the offices of provincial veterinary 
surgeons (Thier'drzte), and also eighteen military pupils. The 
period of study is three years for the former and two for the 
latter. 
The course of education is adapted to all who study medicine 
in any of its departments, as well as to the special practitioners in 
the diseases of domestic animals, cavalry-officers, horse-trainers, 
land bailiffs, and agriculturalists ; smiths and farriers ; inspectors 
of meat-markets; sheep and cattle-doctors ; shepherds and hunts- 
men, &c. A portion of the veterinary course is attended by the 
students in the higher branches of medicine and surgery, as those 
of this class who may have graduated in the veterinary institute 
are invariably preferred in making the appointment of district 
physician, and great numbers of the medical men, in the remote 
