VETERINARY EDUCATION. 
587 
The facilities for instructing in anatomy, medicine, and 
surgery and other practical studies are nearly equal if not on 
a par with the other schools. Some have said that they are 
superior, and others have claimed that their facilities contain 
too few practising veterinarians and that the supply of chemi¬ 
cal material is in some inadequate, and that consequently 
while the graduates might be scientific, they were not practical. 
It is of course understood by all that the veterinarian 
should possess both a scientific and a practical knowledge of 
veterinary medicine and surgery; as but few students have 
obtained a knowledge bearing on the science of medicine 
before entering our veterinary colleges, such knowledge 
must be acquired at college. It is evident that if not acquired 
at college it will never be obtained. Even if the practitioner 
of medicine be inclined to study science he has not at hand 
the necessary opportunities and other accomodations which 
are essential. 
The practical knowledge which the veterinarian should 
possess is acquired during the college course, and is con¬ 
tinued after graduation as long as veterinaiw medicine be 
intelligently practiced. The friends of State colleges answer 
the critic who says that there are too few veterinarians in 
the teaching corps and not enough clinical material, by 
saying that those who are in the faculty devote almost their 
entire time to the work, and that as many clinical cases as 
can be studied bv the students are at hand ; that more 
cases than can be observed and studied are of no advantage, 
that even admitting a possible tendency to become scholastic, 
it is much to be preferred to empiricism which must follow, 
to a considerable extent, where the sciences are neglected. 
Briefly summarizing, we find that veterinary education is far 
in advance of what it has been in the past. That increasing 
demands for a higher and a more complete education have 
led to great improvement in our colleges during recent 
years. That by the organization of new schools having 
better facilities and longer courses of instruction, and through 
the untiring efforts of some of the older members of our 
profession, veterinary education has advanced to the place 
