310 
FREDERICK A. LYONS. 
it as a piece of bone, but that would be all he could tell you about 
it, or that lie would have the curiosity to know. But let a Cu¬ 
vier or a Huxley examine it, and he would from that alone be 
able, perhaps, to draw accurately the entire skeleton of some ex¬ 
tinct animal. Hot only that, but he might inform you how and 
when it got there, though it were tens of thousands of years ago. 
A mind without good previous training is unable, at a single 
step, to cope with the subtleties and delicate questions of science. 
Natural intelligence may be never so clear, quick, and apt, but if 
it be not disciplined to exact and methodic processes, it must fail 
to understand and appreciate the simplest problems of biology. 
I repeat, it is only education of the mental faculties that can pro¬ 
duce these habits. 
When I say then, that a good fundamental education is a pre¬ 
requisite to the intelligent study of veterinary science, I mean that 
the faculties must have been already amply trained. I do not 
insist that a man should have read Cicero, Horace and Virgil, or 
that he should be technically acquainted with logarithms and the 
calculus—though it would be of priceless advantage—but he should 
exhibit enough knowledge to show that during its acquirement^ 
the mind had undergone a considerable amount of discipline. 
Ho one will dispute the immense advantages to one who is 
prepared in this way to enter upon the study of this profession ; 
but those who are already in its ranks, and regard it as an hon¬ 
orable and scientific pursuit, owe it to themselves and to their pro¬ 
fession to insist that such previous preparation should be a sine 
qua non. Perhaps the time is not yet ripe for such a rule to be 
effectually enforced, but we hope it is not far distant. 
A preliminary education of this description is absolutely nec¬ 
essary for the prosecution of scientific investigation in general, 
and now we may refer to what medical science, including of 
course the veterinary, requires particularly. 
To understand life, health, and disease, requires a knowledge 
of the conditions under which these phenomena are produced. 
The vital manifestations are the result of constant chemical and 
physical changes. Indeed, it is the constancy of these occur¬ 
rences that distinguishes animate from inanimate objects. Ho 
