147 
STATE OF VETERINARY EDUCATION. 
many young men, who scarcely knew a horse from a cow, are 
considered to be duly qualified to practice as veterinary sur¬ 
geons, and sent into the world with license to kill or to cure. 
The thing is preposterous, ruinous. The applicant for a diploma 
to practice human medicine would be rejected with indignation, 
if his instruction occupied no longer space of time. 
_ « 
There are no miracles now-a-days. Diligent and long con- 
* tinned study can alone prepare the pupil for the honourable 
pursuit of his profession. 
The effect of the present system is, that not only are too many 
veterinary surgeons thrown upon the world utterly incompetent, 
and therefore bringing sad disgrace on the profession, but the 
young man whose friends have rightly conceived, or whose own 
good sense has taught him, that in a few short months he could 
not acquire that reputation and skill on which his future repu¬ 
tation could alone be founded, labours under a most injurious 
stigma. He must be exceedingly stupid, or incorrigibly idle, 
if he whiles away so much time, when another, in one-third of 
the period, obtains his diploma. 
We know more instances than one in which a six and an 
eighteen-month student have settled in the same neighbour¬ 
hood, and the former 'would not bear one moment’s comparison 
with the latter. Yet the former considers it a feather in his 
cap, and publicly boasts of having so rapidly obtained his 
diploma; and, for a while, and to a certain extent, triumphs, 
while the man of real knowledge is neglected. 
Some students do not hear two-thirds of the Professor’s 
lectures. How is this ? Are these lectures unnecessary ? Do 
they convey no information ? Can the student be prepared with¬ 
out the most essential part of them ? Are they paying so much 
for that which can be readily dispensed with? We will push 
this no farther. 
But there is an examining committee before whom the 
student must appear ; and it is composed of the most emi¬ 
nent teachers, competent to decide, and whose honour is 
