EDITORIAL. 
245 
are parts, evidently, of the department of surgery. In an¬ 
other it is a special department of helminthology, or of 
dental surgery, which belong respectively to general practice 
and to surgery, all of which we cannot but consider great 
error, and one which calls for rectification at the hands of 
the governing faculties of the American veterinary schools, 
through a concert of action which must be advantageous to all, 
and principally to the profession—when adopted. 
Why cannot these various bodies meet together, say 
representatively, in a convocation of the Dean of each of our 
veterinary institutions, to discuss this subject, and any other 
that might be submitted to their consideration. Such a con¬ 
vocation would certainly not be out of the way ; even as a 
novelty it would be a great event, from which much benefit 
might be extracted for our profession. When shall the first 
meeting be announced ? 
General Medical Education. — A new departure 
has also been taken by several of our medical schools, the 
bugle being first sounded in Boston, and answered by Phila¬ 
delphia, which it is intimated, sotto voce , will also soon 
have a response from New York. This new departure is 
the extension of the medical course to four years’ attend¬ 
ance, and it will be none too short a time to acquire knowl¬ 
edge and skill sufficient to practice the healing art in its best 
manner. This is great progress. The Medical Department of 
the University of the City of New York also makes some 
changes, establishing three years attendance at college as 
obligatory, and, in effect, endowing the different chairs, and 
making her faculty independent of the number of students— 
probably the best measure for assuring the thorough execution 
of their duties on the part of the faculty, and for relieving the 
examination for graduation of any suspicion of interest and 
partiality. 
These are important steps, indeed, and veterinarians cannot 
consider them without feeling a sentiment of ambition, while 
realizing the obligations which these changes in medical 
education are calculated to impose on the student of vet¬ 
erinary science. The days of private undertakings in the es- 
