EDITORIAL. 
244 - 
great Delafond gave us as good a course of lectures on cattle 
diseases as could be obtained in either of the other two 
French Schools at Lyons or at Toulouse, and still the latter 
was considered superior in respect to the opportunities it af¬ 
forded for the clinical cattle study, although in respect to 
equine patients the first place was accorded to Alfort. 
The object of the new departure, as we understand it, is 
the formation of a special department, with a special professor, 
upon whom will necessarily devolve the duty of providing 
sufficient material for the cattle clinics. The fact is certainly 
a peculiar one, that the land which is the birthplace of veter¬ 
inary science should be the most dilatory in establishing this 
as a special department, so long after its right to be so dis¬ 
tinguished had been recognized by some others among the 
principal veterinary schools of Europe. We say some , for in 
several we still find the subject of Bovine Pathology com¬ 
mitted to the care of the Professor of Theory and Practice. 
On this continent our schools have copied so much from 
the European style of organization that it is not surprising 
that the same condition should exist on the point in question. 
Yet here there are one or two schools where the pathology 
of cattle forms a distinct chair, while in some others it is 
given to the Professor of Theory and Practice, meaning, 
often, the overtasked gentleman who lectures on equine 
pathology, on bovine diseases, and also, as a complimentary 
matter, adds to his already heavy burden that of delivering 
lectures on diseases of the sheep, the hog and the dog. 
There is evidently something here to reform, and on this 
continent, where the schools are yet young (though some 
may claim a life of a quarter of a century), the present is the 
time to see that the work of organization is well studied and 
settled, in order that the labors of the members of the faculty 
may be equally divided and fairly appointed. 
In glancing over the announcements of our American 
schools, we cannot avoid observing that in some instances the 
hours of the curriculum are so filled as to assign work to 
one chair which belongs to another. In one it is a special de¬ 
partment on ophthalmology, or of diseases of the feet, which 
