275 
VETERINARY SCHOOL OF TOULOUSE. 
so difficult, of the nature of life in organized beings; and by the 
study of pathological phenomena in the brute, we cannot fail of 
arriving at a more extensive knowledge of the physical and moral 
character of man. At all times the question respecting the real 
situation of brutes in the scale of being has been one of the most 
difficult in philosophy. From the system which makes them 
merely simple machines without intelligence, and without a 
rudiment of moral feeling, to that which raises them in some 
sort to the level of man, the minds of the most eminent philoso¬ 
phers have been occupied in assigning them their proper rank in 
creation. Their sufferings without recompense have made some 
doubt a future existence to man—their affections, their devotion to 
particular persons, have caused others to believe that the friend¬ 
ships of men, like those of brutes, are founded on custom or interest 
alone; and, at the same time their direct relation with our principal 
wants, and their voluntary obedience to us, when they might 
overpower us by brute force, furnish some of the strongest arguments 
in favour of providence; while the immobility of their grosser 
instincts, which nothing can arrest or change, is evidence of the 
superiority of man. Hence it follows, that the study of the vete¬ 
rinary art, already so useful in other respects, closely allies itself 
with "the highest conceptions of the human understanding, in its 
examination of the greatest difficulties which it has yet approach¬ 
ed, whether it be in the study of the body or the mind. 
M. Moiroud, the director of the school, next addressed the 
assembly. The following is an extract from his speech: — 
Schools have been formed to teach the manner of extracting 
the precious metals from the earth, and of converting them to 
various uses; nay, even of carving the wood, and fashioning the 
stone : they have been founded for the purposes of the song and 
the dance ; but we have been left to long for one devoted to the 
advancement of that art which furnishes man with his subsis¬ 
tence, and which is the principal source of all his riches. 
“ Among the establishments of public instruction founded and 
supported by government, ours is almost the only one that can be 
considered as belonging to rural oeconomy—the only one, the 
organization and proceedings of which can fill, with little cost 
and much advantage, the chasm to which I have just alluded. 
The building is completed ; it is ready to receive that which was 
the object of our prayers, and which appears to us to merit the 
good wishes of all who are interested in the prosperity of our 
country, for it offer chances of success which it will be difficult 
to meet with elsewdiere. 
“ The students coming from twenty-five or thirty different de¬ 
partments, who have here submitted to the regular discipline 
of instruction, and who are destined in their practice to unite 
