VETERINARY EDUCATION. 
103 
The practice of this Seminary was meant to extend to every do¬ 
mesticated quadruped ; but they were never sent to the College, 
and the Professors could acquire no experience in the treatment 
of their diseases. The consequence is that not only the practice, 
but the instructions at this Institution are confined to the Horse 
alone. 
In all other countries the education and practice of the Vete- 
.rinary Surgeon extend to every animal subdued by man, and 
rendered useful to him. The English Veterinarian is, I fear, not 
only inferior to his continental brethren in the knowledge of the 
horse, but is unfortunately doomed to utter ignorance of the 
economy and diseases of every other animal. 
I do not blame the Professors of our College for this. With¬ 
out practice they could not obtain experience, and without ex¬ 
perience they were too prudent and too candid to expose them¬ 
selves or mislead their pupils. 
Whatever be the cause of this evil, it is however much to be 
lamented, and it behoves the Governors of the College to rectify 
it without delay. 
Justice to the student requires this. Conceive a young man 
settling in the country, and his ultimate success depending on 
the impression which he makes at first. He is consulted by a 
well-informed and wealthy grazier respecting a disease which is 
destroying some of his most valuable cattle. Our poor student 
has never been taught the nature of the disease, its medical 
treatment, or even its name. If he undertakes the case, he 
will probably, or certainly, disgrace himself by a succession of 
blunders ; and, if he honestly confesses his ignorance, the gra¬ 
zier will think meanly of his professional acquirements, and of 
the school whence he came. This is a situation of mortification 
and debasement in which the Veterinary Surgeon should not be 
placed. 
The interest of the Agriculturist more imperiously demands an 
improvement in the education of the Veterinary Pupil, w Great 
Britain contains about a million and a half of horses, for the 
medical treatment of which the College annually grants diplo¬ 
mas to more than fifty Students, and the country greatly ac¬ 
knowledges the benefit conferred. 
It likewise contains more than five millions of neat-cattle, 
four millions of swine, and thirty millions of sheep, for the study 
of whose ailments no Professor is provided,—no Surgeon is edu¬ 
cated. These animals, constituting, even more essentially than 
the horse, the wealth of the kingdom, are not deemed worthy 
a single lecture! 
Three sheep in every hundred die annually of the flood; 
I 
