274 
VETERINARY SCHOOL OF TOULOUSE. 
from the establishment of this school. “ Nothing, he said, could 
be more useful in an agricultural country, like the south of France, 
than a school calculated to form good veterinary surgeons. The 
domesticated animals were the first and are the most valuable 
machines of man; they may, in truth, be called, in the language 
of one of the professors, walking machines; so essential are the 
services which they render to the agriculturist and the mechanic. 
Persons who have been initiated into all the mysteries of science, 
skilful in comparative anatomy, and early instructed in the 
habits, the diseases, the wants, and the general management 
of domesticated animals, will render their country services that 
cannot be too highly appreciated. If the therapeutical treatment 
of quadrupeds has not an end so exalted as that of man, it is not 
inferior in the immense utility of its application, and in the variety 
and importance of the advantages which we derive every instant 
from those who are the objects of it. 
Another consideration, and that in some sort of a political 
nature, is the intellectual advantage which will result to our 
country from the establishment of veterinary schools. Instead 
of the ignorance and mere routine which now alone preside over 
the management and the medical treatment of cattle, agri¬ 
culturists and practitioners will be enabled to appeal to men 
of real science to resolve the difficulties which frequently present 
themselves with regard to the food and the diseases of their 
animals. This daily intercourse of our peasants and farmers with 
well informed veterinary surgeons cannot fail of being followed 
by consequences the most important as it respects the develop¬ 
ment of knowledge, the destruction of unfounded prejudices, 
and as a necessary consequence, the rapid improvement of agri¬ 
culture. Who is not aware that superstition is too often sum¬ 
moned to the support of ignorance, when disease is prevalent 
among animals, and that the most ridiculous practices supersede 
the use of proper medical means ? Under this point of view, a 
veterinary surgeon is henceforth an important character in a 
rural district, not only because he can heal the maladies of 
animals, but because he must necessarily diffuse among his 
neighbours a portion of that light which he has acquired in his 
course of study. 
1/ 
In addition to this, it is impossible not to believe that the 
veterinary art must exert the most beneficial influence on general 
science, and even on philosophy. By deeply penetrating, and 
that gradually more and more, into these mysteries of physiology, 
which have occupied in our days the most celebrated naturalists, 
from Bichat to Geoflroy SainUHilaire and Cuvier, the anatomy 
of so many animals must cast the greatest light on the question. 
