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with anatomy varies from 396 to 1,296, while an average for all institutions is 912.

Certain conclusions may be drawn in this connection: First, that the conditions existing in the various States now supporting veterinary colleges do not vary sufficiently to justify such an extreme range in amount of time devoted to various subjects in the curriculum. Fundamentally, veterinary medicine is the same no matter in what part of the United States it is being taught.

There must be some other reason, therefore, for this great variety of total hours allotted to various subjects. For example, bacteriology and serum therapy, subjects which may be classed as among the newer sciences, are so obviously important in any branch of medicine that they may be classified as among subjects essential to any student in medicine. Yet a range is found from 96 to 408 hours in

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the amount of time assigned to these subjects by the different institutions. The average is 266. While standardization and complete uniformity of courses in the various institutions is not recommended, such wide variation can lead but to one conclusion, that in veterinary education there is no agreement among the deans and other responsible persons in veterinary faculties as to what constitutes a good course of study. If 96 hours of bacteriology and serum therapy are sufficient, several hundred hours of time are being wasted in the other institutions. It is to be hoped that a careful study by the deans of the various colleges will lead to some adjustment of this wide variation.

The course of study for veterinary students is already too short and must soon either be extended to five years, or a year of preveterinary work of collegiate grade must be required. Under these circumstances it is important to determine how the time available for undergraduate instruction is utilized.

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On the whole, courses in veterinary medicine are crowded with required subjects, leaving no room for electives and affording no opportunity for the student to give special attention to any special subject in which he may be interested. It may be argued that specialization should not begin in undergraduate years, that it should be reserved for graduate work. The number of courses offered varies widely. The total number of hours in the various curricula varies from a little more than 3,900 to nearly 5,000. One might suppose that the institutions that are handicapped by insufficient faculty would be the ones with the smaller number of hours. This, however, is not the case as the one having the largest staff is next to the lowest in the total number of hours offered.

TOTAL NUMBER OF HOURS AND TOTAL NUMBER OF
TEACHERS IN ANATOMY.

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Comparing the institutions and the number of hours required with the number of men available on the teaching staffs is an interesting study. The facts are shown by graph 13. The first column is the subject group and the second column indicates the number of men available on the staff for the teaching of the subject group. It will be noted that the number of men available for handling the work does not seem to govern the amount of work offered. Either poor instruction is offered in some of the schools or others have more help than is necessary. How a college can expect four or five men to handle the same number of hours handled by three or four times that many men in other institutions and still require them to contribute to the development of satisfactory professional character is difficult to understand.

TOTAL NUMBER OF HOURS AND TOTAL NUMBER OF TEACHERS IN PHYSIOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY.

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NOTE: VETERINARY MEDICINE IS TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOL
OF MEDICINE; ONE VETERINARIAN

ASSISTS.

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contact depend on many factors other

than frequency. A survey of the number of hours assigned to various subjects is, therefore, not to be accepted as a final index of the grade of an institution. Classroom and laboratory periods provide at best only one opportunity for the student to secure the information for which he has come to college.

558

HOURS OF CLINICS

1008

0011

988

834

720

604

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NUMBER OF

TEACHERS

IN

A study of the graphs seems to indicate that the number of hours in the course of study has not been the most important determining factor in the success of the graduates of the various institutions. Hours assigned in a course of study simply provide an opportunity for contact of teacher with student. The benefits derived from this

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