VICIOUS HOUSES. 
167 
chance of success. I should therefore strongly advise the generality 
of persons having a vicious horse not to attempt a cure. There 
are but two things for such persons to do;—send the rebel to some 
one perfectly qualified to undertake his management, or sell the 
animal at once. 
My object has been to shew, that though vice maybe exhibited 
in a horse in its worst shape, it by no means follows that it pro¬ 
ceeds from a vicious disposition. If persons would be as satisfied 
of this as long practice has made me, they would also be satisfied 
that to resort to punishment and brute force as a commencement is 
the very worst step that can be taken; independent of being, in 
the majority of cases, a dangerous, and, in fact, unjust one. 
I do not quarrel with the term vicious, for a horse having a bad 
vice is vicious; that is, he is vicious so far as that particular vice 
goes. The first thing, therefore is to turn in our minds the pro¬ 
bable cause of the effect. Having done so, begin, if possible with 
the cause. Do away with the remembrance of that; and in very 
many cases the effect would cease, without giving us much trouble. 
A dog is naturally a fond, domestic animal; but if he had been 
beaten, ill-used, and annoyed by a whole school of boys, he would 
learn to snap at all who approached him : would the rational mode 
of setting about eradicating this moroseness be to beat him 1 No; 
take him away from the annoyance ; use him kindly : my life on 
it, in a short time he would become a faithful, attached friend and 
servant. With a horse of a generally good temper, but with some 
peculiar vice, I would say, mutatis mutandis , do the same thing. 
H. H. 
Foreign Department. 
Report of the Sub-Committee appointed to examine into 
the Teaching of Veterinary Medicine in France. 
[Continued from page 107.] 
Plan for the Re-organization of Veterinary Schools. 
With a view of giving to veterinary instruction all the advan¬ 
tages which the progress of science and the requirements of agri¬ 
culture and commerce call for, the committee have deemed it ad¬ 
visable to create nine professorial chairs, the respective duties of 
which will be as follows :— 
