172 
STATE OF VETERINARY EDUCATION. 
more dangerous. One good clinical lecture is worth a dozen in 
the theatre, aye, even of his; and he may depend on it that 
his reward will be certain and dear to him, the rapid improve¬ 
ment and ardent gratitude of his pupils. 
The veterinary surgeon has occasionally to perform very 
serious operations on the living animal; and on his adroitness 
in operating, more than on his skill in pathology, will his repu¬ 
tation depend. How is he to be qualified for the performance 
of this part of his duty ? Will lectures suffice, or the mere fact 
of his having been present at the operation, and, jostling among 
his fellow-pupils, getting a momentary glimpse of what is going 
forward ? 
Practice alone will teach him. Where is he to acquire it? 
At the knackers ? Is he there; and, with no preceptor even 
there to guide him; is he there to torture and to mangle a miser¬ 
able animal ? We know not who gave him the right to do this; 
but we do know the bar at which he must hereafter answer for 
the usurpation of this right. 
In an establishment like the veterinary college there will 
always be sufficient cases; and we hold it to be essential, that 
every student, after being examined as to his correct anatomical 
knowledge, so far as it relates to the operation in question, shall, 
under the superintendence of a professor, perform all the lead¬ 
ing operations. With the professor at his elbow, and the reason 
of each step, and the danger which threatens each, being pointed 
out to him as he proceeds, he will become a more skilful opera- 
tor than a thousand lectures could make him, or manv a man- 
' 4 / 
gled subject when left to himself. 
. The Forge ! Are the students taken into it, and made to go. 
through the different processes ? To be able to take off and put ' 
on the shoe, and to pare out the foot, and to obtain the perfect 
use of the drawing knife, and adroitly to perform many opera¬ 
tions on the foot; these are things advantageous to the town- 
practitioner, and indispensable with him who practices in the 
