THE TRAINING OE VETERINARY STUDENTS. 837 
in my professional career, and the value of which I have 
ungrudgingly acknowledged elsewhere. 
In discussing the matter of veterinary education it must 
be borne in mind that there are several points of view from 
which to look at the question, viz. that of the town practi¬ 
tioner, the country practitioner, the teacher, and the teacher 
and practitioner combined ; of these several individuals I 
think it will be conceded that the latter has the best oppor¬ 
tunities of obtaining data upon which to base valuable con¬ 
clusions. 
What, in each of the discussions to which I have referred, 
I wished to impress upon the profession was, that in my 
opinion (founded on a large and varied experience) a pro • 
longed period of pupilage prior to entering college is a dis¬ 
advantage to students, and in the following ways :—(1) a 
student who has been engaged several years in practice 
does not, in the majority of instances, settle down kindly to 
the study of technical subjects ; (£) he frequently imbibes 
ideas with reference to disease which are at variance with 
scientific pathological teaching; (3) after a prolonged 
period of activity in his profession, the sedentary life of a 
student acts injuriously (temporarily and sometimes perma¬ 
nently) upon his health ; (4) during a three or four years’ 
pupilage he will have spent a sum, in many cases of £300 
or £400, add to this ££00 or ££50 for college expenses, and 
very frepuently another £300 or £400 to start him in prac¬ 
tice, and he has spent a little fortune before he has had a 
chance of earning one penny ; and further, after all this 
expenditure he finds that the parliament of his profession is 
powerless to prevent his own groom (whose education has 
not cost him a farthing) from actively opposing him, or 
adopting the title to which he alone has any moral (not 
legal) right. 
I conscientiously and earnestly urge upon my professional 
brethren the advisability of allowing their proteges to inter¬ 
mix the practical with the theoretical. If they think it 
best that they should have a pupilage first, let it be only for 
a period of a few months (six or eight), then have a session 
at college and pass the three subjects of the first examina¬ 
tion, followed by a few months’ practice, and after the 
second examination a still further period of practice. By 
the adoption of a plan of this kind students would not look 
upon study as a bore, they would be trained to habits of 
study and scientific observation, their practical lessons 
would be enlightened by the teachings of science, and they 
would get more out of one case than they otherwise would 
