410 SYNOPSIS OP CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 
during pus, &c., and from others such as we also find in com¬ 
mon water. And these differences are still more marked, if 
we think of the nature of infective organisms, such as the 
bacterium of charbon, the septic vibrio, and the microbic 
organism of the poultry yard. The terms purulent infection, 
septiceemia, bactersemia, are generic, the specific conditions 
are very numerous, according to the nature of the contagium 
vivum on which they depend.” 
In Germany the position of private practitioners is no 
better than in Franee. The law guarantees the title of 
veterinary surgeon to those who have passed fixed examina¬ 
tions after a certain period of study at one or other of the 
six veterinary schools (Berlin, Hanover, Dresden, Giessen, 
Stuttgart, and Munich), but, at the same time, it allows pro¬ 
fessional liberty and authorises empirics to practise treatment 
of our domestic animals. For Germany, as for France, we 
may say with M. Sanson that the practice of the veterinary 
profession is entirely free as is that of shoemaking or hair¬ 
cutting. Whoever believes himself sufficiently in the con¬ 
fidence of the public to enable him to gain by it his daily 
bread can freely practise in all security, and without fearing 
the opposition of any one. The diploma of the veterinarian 
guarantees only the title which it confers, and by no means 
the exclusive right to practice operations such as the title 
suggests. Nevertheless, it is this diploma which imposes on 
the practitioner a sense of the seriousness of his task, and of 
the importance of the duties which are connected with it ; it 
gives him a responsibility to his conscience and to society to 
be always ready, by day or night, to brave the fatigues and 
even dangers of practice. It leads him not only to protect 
the capital which is represented in the sick animal, but also 
but also to succour as rapidly as possible the poor animal 
which is the humble servant of man, to prevent the suffer¬ 
ings of those who are our humble brothers, as the excellent 
Michelet said. The veterinary profession in general is far 
from being in all countries what it should be. I have already 
noted a curious thing some time ago in a clironique of the 
Clinique Vetermaire. We find, in general, under a some¬ 
what absolute governmental system, as notably in large 
states, the number of veterinarians being insufficient, em¬ 
pirics have full scope ; in small states, on the contrary, in 
free countries duly qualified veterinarians abound, so to 
speak, and then there are no empirics. 
In France, Prussia, Austria, &c., the schools scarcely 
produce the number of veterinarians necessary to replace 
those who, by death and other causes, are removed from their 
