WHAT IS DOCKING ? 
199 
COLLEGE COMMENCEMENTS. 
NATIONAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
The fourth annual commencement exercises took place at 
this college, April nth, at 8 P. M. Speeches were made by Pro¬ 
fessors Salmon, Willits and Lockwood. The first college prize 
was won by E. E. Seitz, of Seitzland, Pennsylvania. Honorable 
mention was made of J. W. Petty, of North Carolina; W. R. 
Jobson, of Pennsylvania, and B. E. Harper, of the District of 
Columbia. Reid R. Ashworth won the junior prize for scholar¬ 
ship. The following received the college degree—D. V. S. : P. 
A. Fish, D. Sc., New York ; E. E. Graffam, District of Columbia ; 
R. H. Hadfield, Rhode Island; B. E. Harper, District of Colum¬ 
bia ; J. M. Heagerty, Maryland ; W. R. Jobson, Pennsylvania ; 
C. H. Lockwood, District of Columbia; J. W. Petty, North 
Carolina ; C. H. Morrison, Connecticut; F. H. Schneider, Penn¬ 
sylvania ; E. E. Seitz, Pennsylvania; John Lockwood, D. V. S., 
District of Columbia. 
WHAT IS DOCKING ? 
/ 
Prepared by Jno. P. Haines, President of the American Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals. 
Docking is the amputation of a portion of the horse’s tail. 
The anatomy of the tail may not be fully understood, nor the 
methods of docking be generally known. We think it neces¬ 
sary, therefore, to acquaint the public with the facts about dock¬ 
ing and with the opinions of many well-known veterinary 
surgeons upon the dangers, the cruelty, and the uselessness of 
the operation. 
The tail is composed of bones, muscles, nerves, and blood¬ 
vessels, which are enveloped in skin, as sensitive on the under 
surface as on any portion of the body. The spinal cord or 
spinal marrow, is lodged in the canal of the backbone. It ex¬ 
tends from the base of the brain to a short distance behind the 
loins, and it terminates posteriorly in a pointed extremity, 
which is continued by the mass of nervous trunks— cauda 
equina. In number, the spinal nerves are forty-two. They are 
in pairs, of which the superior is the sensory nerve, and the in¬ 
ferior the motor nerve. The horse’s tail has fifteen bones and 
