ON THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF CATTLE^ &C. 447 
ceeds to confusion, and, in a little while, almost every trace of 
valuable impression is obliterated. Weeks and months pass 
away in this unimproving state. At length light begins to dawn 
upon them, and the path they have to tread gradually opens to their 
view; but the diminution of their little purse or the impatience of 
their friends warns them away. They hastily prepare for an ex¬ 
amination. They get by rote certain answers on certain points, 
and the youth, who, six months before, knew not a cartilage from 
a tendon, is dubbed a veterinary surgeon, and sent into the world 
with licence to kill or cure. 
The first professor of the Veterinary College was wont to ad¬ 
dress his pupils in the following language. The veterinary art 
is a branch of general medicine; and the same paths which lead 
to a knowledge of the diseases of man, lead equally to those of 
brutes. An accurate examination of the parts of animal bodies, 
a studious survey of the an’angement, structure, form, use, and 
relations of these parts, and of their laws of action, and also of 
the nature and properties of various remedies, these constitute 
^^the only foundation of medical science. It is evident, therefore, 
that the branch of medicine styled YeiQvmdirY yvequires an extent 
of knowledge equal at least with any other branch, and the vete- 
rinarian is, in very many instances, obliged to engage in more^ 
minute researches, and in longer and more laborious inves- 
^^tigation, for his art comprehends the cure and preservation 
of every kind of useful animal. And when the patients of the 
veterinary surgeons are dumb, he must have an accurate and 
quick eye, and ready penetration, and sound judgment, and 
long-confirmed experience, who can with a degree of certainty 
determine the existence of particular diseases, their causes, seat, 
state, and progress, and derive from symptoms so closely re- 
sembling each other the proper inference, and anticipate the 
issue, and hasten to avert it. No one, therefore, can be so ab- 
^^surd as to imagine that it is possible, without previous and long 
study, and a due course of investigation and experimental know- 
ledge, to become a veterinary surgeon.’’ 
Such was the language of St. Bel. It was that which Hunter 
and Cline approved, and it indicated a course of study which 
would have well accomplished the objects of the institution. 
On what ground the language of the present professor should 
be so different, or by what means the governors of the college 
were or could be taught to believe, that the diseases of the horse 
were few, and easily understood, and more easily treated—and 
that the horse was the only subject of the veterinarian’s atten¬ 
tion, the only subject worth a lecture—and instead of the three 
years appointed by the medical luminaries of that day, five 
