A DISCUSSION OF THE REPORT ON VETERINARY EDUCATION. 
3 2 7 
in short a professional gentleman. While this may be a delicate 
point for discussion it is one of great importance; for the appre¬ 
ciation and respectability of the profession does not merely rest 
upon the scientific attainments of a man, but perhaps more so 
upon his indisputable habits and tact. This phase of the ques¬ 
tion has been sadly neglected in forming veterinary faculties, as 
I have often heard disrespectful remarks by graduates about the 
habits of their teachers, a matter which is highly to be regretted 
as being possible at all. 
Another point which needs criticizing is the more and more 
apparent policy of our American Schools to prefer their own 
graduates as teachers and professors. The cause of this policy 
is easily understood from the fact that the good qualities and 
talents of a man are easily recognized while he is a student at 
college. To a certain extent, therefore, this custom is natural 
and excusable, but if carried as far as it has been of late it cre¬ 
ates “cliques” and “professional rings,” which are liable to over¬ 
estimate their ability and influence, and which must in time be¬ 
come a menace to the college. 
If all the young and inexperienced V. M. D’s. and M. D. V’s. 
and D. V. S’s., whose names constitute for the most part the 
faculties of our colleges, would exchange their places between 
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, etc., the faculties so 
diversified would certainly receive a new impulse and take a 
vigorous development. 
The course of instruction in our colleges as regards subjects 
is not so much inefficient as it is unsystematical. It seems as if 
the needs of the students are not fully grasped. Subjects which 
justly belong to the third year are crowded into the second or 
even the first year’s course. The attempt to teach clinical 
medicine together or even before the purely theoretical branches 
are thoroughly mastered, is folly. It confounds the student and 
makes teaching difficult. .The subjects should be arranged in 
their natural order. The first year should be wholly devoted to 
the introductory branches, the second year should finish the 
theoretical branches, and the third year should teach the student 
