454 
VETERINARY COLLEGES — ALFORT. 
tion. That it may fully answer the expectations of those to whom 
it owes its birth, is our ardent wish. 
Another pamphlet was presented by the same gentleman, entitled 
" An Essay on the Veterinary Art, setting forth its great useful- 
ness, and giving an account of the Veterinary Colleges in France, 
and exhibiting the facility and utility of instituting similar schools 
in the United States, by Peter A. Browne, LL.D.,” published at 
Philadelphia. This gentleman gives the best account that we have 
seen of the French veterinary education. The construction of the 
different veterinary schools is a matter of great interest, copious 
extracts are therefore made from the history here given ; especially 
as very few of our members will have any opportunity of seeing 
this American pamphlet. 
The school at Lyons lays claim to the greatest antiquity, having 
been founded by Bourgelat, in 1763. In the year 1766 that at 
Alfort was established by the same patriotic individual. The 
school at Toulouse was opened at the restoration of the Bourbons. 
The students at Alfort belong principally to the departments of the 
north of France : those of the south are divided between Lyons 
and Toulouse. The present number of pupils at Alfort is nearly 
300; there are about 150 at Lyons, and the same number at Tou- 
louse. The object of instituting the school at Toulouse was the 
improvement of the medical treatment of oxen and sheep, oxen 
being more generally employed in agriculture and road-work in the 
south of France than in the north. The study of the diseases of 
the horse is not, however, neglected there. 
The professors are more numerous at Alfort than at either of the 
other schools, the buildings are larger, and the grounds are more 
extensive. There is a kind of experimental farm attached to it, 
on a scale large enough to cultivate all the plants employed in the 
nourishment of domestic animals, as well as all those that are used 
medicinally. 
Every school has a Director, who is ordinarily chosen from 
among the professors, and who ought to be a veterinarian ; but there 
are occasional exceptions to this, as in the present Director of the 
school at Lyons. 
The college at Alfort contains : — 
1. A Professor of Veterinary and general Anatomy, who likewise 
gives instructions on the exterior forms of domestic animals, and 
their beauties and defects. 
2. A Professor of Natural History, as applicable to the veteri- 
nary art, zoology, comparative anatomy, and vegetable physics. 
3. A Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacology. 
4 . A Professor of Pathology, whose duty it is to teach the dis- 
