404 
ON VETERINARY MEDICAL EDUCATION; 
not be* actuated by the insidious wish to discover some imperfec¬ 
tion, or error, or forgetfulness, nor • by the foolish ambition of 
showing your fancied ability; and never argue with your tutors 
for victory rather than truth. This is despicable. Discover a 
real desire for improvement, and I will pledge myself that your 
preceptors will always be accessible, and grateful for the compli¬ 
ment you pay them, and the confidence you place in them. 
As to other lectures, the attendance of the student on them, 
except they are absolutely and intimately connected with his 
profession and practice, must depend on circumstances. If his 
means, or the determination of his friends, will allow him only 
six or seven months, he has no time for many other lectures, how¬ 
ever valuable they may be. Dissection, the practice of the Col¬ 
lege, the lectures of the professor, or those on subjects closely con¬ 
nected with his future practice, and the course of reading and 
study which I have recommended, will fully employ him. 
If, however, he has a little longer time, he should undoubtedly 
avail himself of the opportunity afforded him by the liberality of 
several eminent teachers of human medicine. I certainly dislike 
this seemingly pauper system of education. I am fiimly of 
opinion that the student should receive within the College walls 
all the instruction he can possibly require. It is so in every 
foreign seminary, and at no distant period will be so in our’s. 
The great kindness, however, of the gentlemen to whom I 
have alluded, precludes all painful sense of humiliation; and 
you may, without scruple, benefit by what they so disinterestedly 
offer. 
Lectures on human anatomy and physiology should not be 
neglected. The identity of design and the variety of structure in 
your patients and in man, will be an interesting study, and will 
materially contribute to prepare you for the society of your na¬ 
tural, and wannest, and best friend, the surgeon of the town or 
village in which your lot may be cast. 
Lectures on the practice of physic should not be forgotten. 
The principles are the same; the indications of cure the same ; 
but the different means • and appliances necessaiy to accomplish 
these indications in man and the brute, the different effect of the 
same . medicines, and the stranger difference in the dose, these 
are subjects both curious and eminently useful. 
Natural philosophy and chemistiy must by no means be passed 
over, for the reasons stated in my last letter. 
As to your companions at the college, there is no period of your 
life in which the choice of associates is more important. I trust 
that it is not necessaiy for me to warn you against those who, idle 
themselves^ would induce you to wile and trifle away that time 
on which your future reputation and success depend. An idle 
