560 
THE VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
ever, we may be certain — that Mr. Sewell will be elected Chief 
Professor, and Mr. Spooner, Assistant Professor. 
In the mean time it may not be uninteresting or unuseful to take 
a short review of the origin and progress of the Veterinary College, 
and of its present position. 
Towards the close of the eighteenth century, and when veteri- 
nary schools had been established in most of the continental states, 
and the consequence had evidently been that many of the epidemics 
and other diseases of horses, and of cattle and sheep, had been 
diminished in number and intensity, some of the members of the 
Agricultural Society at Odiham asked themselves, Why should 
not the advantages which the continental states enjoy be extended 
to Great Britain ! After much deliberation, they determined to send 
three young men to the school at Alfort, to be instructed in vete- 
rinary science, and prepared to treat the diseases of every animal 
with which the agriculturist had to do. 
Their journey, however, was prevented by the arrival of 
M. Sainbel in England, who had distinguished himself at the Vete- 
rinary School of Lyons by his study and knowledge of the external 
conformation of the horse, and by a Prize Essay on the treatment 
of some of the diseases of the feet. He afterwards removed to 
Alfort, and there bore away the prize on the same subjects ; but, 
disagreeing with his professor, he at length came to England, and 
proposed to deliver a course of lectures on the conformation of the 
horse. His dissection of Eclipse added to his fame ; and it pre- 
sently began to be supposed, that he who appeared to know so 
much about the horse must be qualified to conduct a veterinary 
establishment. The journey of the young man was suspended, and 
a veterinary school was established in England under his super- 
intendence. This was a flagrant and an irreparable error; for 
Sainbel knew nothing of the diseases and medical treatment of 
cattle. He rarely travelled from the only point on which he found 
himself at home ; and every animal except the horse was, if not 
excluded, altogether neglected. 
Neither the Odiham Society, nor those who became the early 
patrons of the Veterinary College, meant this; for the original pro- 
gramme of the institution at St. Pancras stated, that “ the grand 
