158 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF THE VETERINARY DEPARTiMENT OF 



information, but I am satisfied — and I believe that I may say 

 my colleagues, the other examiners, are also satisfied — that you 

 have exhibited a very great amount of judgment in answering 

 the questions j^ut to you in the course of the examination. 1 

 may say, indeed, that I have seldom seen evinced more strongly 

 the possession of a thorough grounding in the elements of 

 medical knowledge, and this 1 attribute to your individual 

 capacities and assiduity, as well as to the thorough and efficient 

 training through which you have gone under your excellent 

 teachers. I have more than once, on former occasions, indi- 

 cated my conviction that this establishment is as fully deve- 

 loped, in regard to the topics insisted on in the lectures, as is 

 consistent with the present state of your profession, and con- 

 sistent also with justice being done to them by you within the 

 comparatively short course of two years during which you are 

 engaged." 



Professor Goodsir then proceeded to point out that man was 

 much more liable to disease than the lower animals ; that wild 

 animals enjoyed almost a complete immunity from disease ; and 

 that it was only in the case of the domesticated animals that 

 any ajDproach to the severity and complication of the diseases 

 incident to the human frame were to be found. He maintained 

 that wild animals were free from disease, because they were 

 guided by unerring instinct in the selection of their food, as 

 well as in their daily habits ; that man was subject to disease, 

 chiefly because either ignorantly or wilfully he broke and 

 neglected the laws of health ; and that the domesticated animals 

 showed the same fate, because they were subject to the care and 

 guardianship of man, and were not left to follow their natural 

 instincts. It was the duty, therefore, of veterinary surgeons 

 carefully to study the natural disposition and habits of the 

 various domestic animals which they were called upon to treat ; 

 and in all cases where it was possible — in the case of horses, for 

 example, which differed from one another as much as human 

 Ijeings differed from each other — they should make themselves 

 acquainted with the individual temper, disposition, and constitu- 

 tion of the animal under their care. 



Fortieth Session, 18G2-63. 



At the close of the fortieth session, the examinations were 

 held on the 21st and 22d April, and the Society's certificate was 

 conferred on twenty-seven students. 



Dr Craigie, President of the Eoyal College of Physicians, who 

 occupied the chair, delivered a brief address. He said it was 

 scarcely necessary that he should detain them long on such an 

 occasion, but he could not lose the opportunity of expressing his 



