370 
THE PAST AN1) PRESENT 
it is the knowledge said to be obtained from a practice of forty 
years. “ A nerve,” says the writer*, ‘‘is a long small bone , 
with very fine pipes or hollow fibres, wrapped up in the dura 
and pia mater, which not only covers them all in common, but 
also incloses every fibre in particular.” 
Nevertheless, more was known about this time among the 
respectable portion of the practitioners, respecting the anatomy, 
&c. of the horse, in consequence of a great deal having been 
borrowed from the French, and from human anatomy. Also 
from surgeons turning veterinary authors, the structure of the 
animal was better described ; but the practice of physic was 
undergoing little or no change. This, then, was the state of our 
science at the time the Veterinary College was established. 
Let me now direct your readers to the progress of the science, 
from the establishment of the College to the present time, and 
the obstacles it has had to surmount. 
A school of veterinary medicine, established in order to give 
that education which is essentially necessary to constitute a good 
veterinarian, was the setting up of a mighty engine, by which 
veterinary knowledge might be distributed through the length 
and breadth of the land. It did not, however, make that 
progress during the first years of its establishment that might 
have been expected ; but this, from the obstacles it had to 
surmount, was not to be wondered at. During the time that 
M. St. Bel was Professor at the College, little was done towards 
the advancement of veterinary medicine : but some of his ob- 
servations on the art generally tended much to give a tone 
and character to the science which it did not then possess. 
One extract from his writings will suffice to shew the truth of 
the foregoing remark. “The object of this art is, therefore, not 
only congenial with that of human medicine, but the very same 
paths which lead to a knowledge of the diseases of man, lead 
equally to a knowledge of those of brutes. An accurate exa- 
mination of the interior parts of their bodies, a studious survey 
of the arrangement, structure, form, connexion, use, and rela- 
tion of these parts, and of the laws by which they are intended 
to act, as also of the nature and property of the various foods, 
and other agents, which the earth so liberally provides for their 
support and cure ; these form, in a great measure, the sound 
and sure foundation of all medical science, whatever living indi- 
vidual animal is the subject of our considerationf.” 
On the accession of Professor Coleman, the veterinary art 
* W. Perk’s New Treatise on Farriery, 1783, p. 140. 
f See St. Bel’s General Observations on the Art of Veterinary Medicine, 
