504 
VETERINARY SCIENCE DEFENDED. 
gated, truth elicited, and facts accumulated. Every scientific 
institution, and, in fact, every portion of science has been exam- 
ined — not only in our own country, but every corner of the earth, 
and even the most valued and profound secrets of the farrier have 
been added to this store of knowledge. This is the spot where 
are placed men of ample education, of undisputed talent and 
ability, purposely to instruct and inculcate carefully and dili- 
gently the correctest and soundest principles of surgery; to initi- 
ate into the minds of the young information most suitable, and 
most likely to be of the greatest practical utility, and thus render 
them more valuable members of society. It is this place which is 
set aside from all others for the sole purpose of receiving the 
youth whose mind is thirsting after knowledge — disencumbered 
from every other care and trouble — with nothing else to think of, 
nothing to occupy his attention but the improvement of his mind — 
the pursuit of deep and honest study — the acquirement of know- 
ledge — the accumulation of real facts, and the storing up in his 
mind the soundest, choicest, and most sterling information where- 
upon to act in future life. 
Well ; he occupies eighteen months of the most select period 
of his existence, when his capacity for the acquirement of know- 
ledge is calculated to be the strongest, and his mind most readily 
directed to his subject — he attends three or four lectures a-day, 
and has explained to him in the plainest terms possible the se- 
crets of nature and the mysteries of his art. He gains his experi- 
ence from actual practice, from the observation of fifty to eighty 
patients daily — he is taught anatomy, physiology, and patho- 
logy, elementary chemistry, and materia medica, upon the sound- 
est and most correct principles ; in short, he is put in possession 
of knowledge of the greatest usefulness in after-life. He is en- 
abled to give a why for every wherefore. He is enabled to con- 
sult with the human surgeon, and to converse with the most 
scientific men on the beauty and economy of nature, and still 
he is not disabled from discoursing with the more uneducated 
portion of society; of course, he can and does always suit his 
conversation to the company he is in, and can withhold terms 
and technicalities when dictated by circumstances and the non- 
requirement of them. But how is the bungling empiric, who can 
neither read nor write, contrasted with such a man? Which is 
most likely to be of the greatest benefit to society ? The fact is 
obvious, but yet the empiric dares to say in his heart there is no 
advantage gained by such education; no improvement obtained 
by having his natural reason and genius surrounded and acted 
upon by such circumstances. Senseless man ! Ask the heathen, 
and he shall tell thee — ask the savage of the most uncultivated 
