722 
PRACTICAL VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
empirics, &c., but can never see that the fault is in them¬ 
selves. 
We will now inquire whether a classical education will 
ensure the most useful practitioner. 
Much has been said about the cultivated mind beinj^ so 
much more ready and capable of comprehending all subjects 
presented to it, being more ready to receive instruction, and 
like seed sown upon already cultivated and fertile soil to 
bring forth good fruit in abundance. Let us, however, in¬ 
quire what are the results of this high-class training upon 
the mind, and we shall find that it gives men larger and 
more liberal views ; it leads them to take an interest in things 
foreign to their immediate calling ; it fixes the thoughts upon 
great and it may be remote objects ; it trains them to love 
virtue for its own sake—to prefer fame to life, and glory to 
riches. It tends also to soften and refine the tastes, to pro¬ 
duce gentleness of demeanour, and to enable the individual 
to enter into conversation of a superior order with other culti¬ 
vated and intellectual men. Grand, beautiful, and exalted 
as all this may be, what is there in it that can be made to 
serve the necessities attaching to the treatment of a really 
serious and dangerous case of illness ? What does it matter 
if a man possesses the most profound knowledge of astronomy, 
or is acquainted with all the known languages of the world, 
if he lack that special and essential knowledge requisite to 
save the life of his patient ? I believe it is generally ad¬ 
mitted that a high classical education does not strengthen 
the understanding. If it necessarily made its possessor 
superior to other human beings, how is it that of the great 
number of men who distinguish themselves at our universities 
so few continue to shine as bright stars throughout their after 
lives ? With very rare exceptions these men are never heard 
of after leaving college. They settle down among other men 
as ordinary mortals. 
The vast majority of the really great men of this world are 
those who have not received a high class education. 
My experience of highly educated veterinary surgeons is 
this,—they do not take clearer or more profound views of 
their cases; their treatment is not more successful; nor are they 
in themselves in any sense of the word a success. The utter 
inutility of any man possessing high scientific attainments 
without ]iractical experience has been most clearly and incon- 
trovertibly shown by Mr. George Fleming in his letter to the 
YeteTinarian in 1867. Depend upon it a very high-class 
education causes the intellect to radiate and not to converge 
its powers. The mind engages in things visionary rather 
