130 
VETERINARY EDUCATION. 
boy at school. Depend upon it, that if you keep not pace with 
the march of improvement you will be slighted and despised. 
What station are you to fill in life ? When every school-boy, 
and almost every mechanic can now explain many of the phe¬ 
nomena of nature, are you still to be consigned to the degrad¬ 
ing ignorance of the common farrier ? While you mingle with 
the middle, and even to some extent with the superior ranks of 
society, are you to be painfully depressed by the consciousness 
of your comparative ignorance ? 
How will you understand, or your teachers explain the func¬ 
tions of many parts without a reference to, and previous ac¬ 
quaintance, with the rudiments of Natural Philosophy? The 
elucidation of the beautiful structure of the Eye,—the compli¬ 
cated mechanism of the Ear,—the processes of respiration and 
circulation, will be most imperfectly comprehended by you, or 
absolutely unintelligible. 
Let part of your evening be devoted to a review of the pro¬ 
gress you have made, or the knowledge you have acquired, dur¬ 
ing the day. If you have any plates (we have very few, and 
not very good ones) trace on them the muscles and parts you 
have dissected. Read about them. Talk of them with your 
companions. Your Physiology so far as you are now permitted 
to go—your Natural Phylosophy ; • think whether you under¬ 
stand them. Begin to apply them as far as you can. Take the 
beautiful and most useful application of the principle of the 
lever to the construction of the limbs. The few contrivances, 
yet some of them very striking, to lessen the expenditure of 
muscular power ; and, generally speaking, the lavish expenditure 
of power to preserve beauty of form, and quickness and perfec¬ 
tion of action. 
Are these things to employ every evening ? They are to em¬ 
ploy as many evenings as you have resolution to give to them. 
These few months are most important to you. Neglect now 
can never be compensated. 
By following this apparently strict counsel, you may sacrifice 
some pleasure, falsely so called, but you will enjoy the greater 
pleasure of conscious improvement and well-earned esteem. 
Having conquered the skeleton and the extremities, proceed 
to the organs which are connected with the important functions 
of life. Thrice in the week you will attend on the Lectures of 
the Professor. The different organs and their functions will be 
demonstrated and explained by him. Take them in the order in 
which they occur in his Lectures. While his descriptions and 
illustrations are fresh on your memory carefully dissect the part. 
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