THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 159 



high gratification with the character of the two days' examina- 

 tions which had just heen concluded, and at seeing the great 

 progress that had been made in the various branches of veterinary 

 art. It must, he thought, be very gratifying to the teachers 

 connected with the Veterinary College, and doubly so to the 

 students themselves. He would have the successful candidates 

 distinctly to understand that although they had got certificates 

 — those marks of proficiency and stamps, if he might so say, of 

 their professional character to the puljlic — their education was 

 by no means finished. They should distinctly understand that 

 they were to continue to extend their education — to make the 

 education they had already acquired more accurate, if possible, 

 and by experience to endeavour to maintain and enlarge their 

 scientific knowledge. No science was stationary, and that 

 remark was peculiarly applicable to veterinary science. The 

 greatest changes had been introduced into the veterinary art 

 during the last thirty years — such changes that, could they be 

 stated in detail, would be regarded as perfectly astonishing — 

 and they might rest assured that there would be further changes 

 of an important character introduced within tlie next ten or 

 twenty years. They should therefore endeavour to keep up 

 with these improvements, always exercising their own judgment 

 as to what improvements should, and what improvements should 

 not, be adopted. They might depend upon this, that nothing in 

 after years would adequately compensate for want of knowledge. 

 Whenever any of those he was now addressing should, in the 

 course of their professional career, see disease in an animal, it 

 should be their duty to ascertain whether it was curable or not, 

 and employ all the means in their power to restore the animal 

 to health. The lives of these animals were extremely valuable 

 to the country. The students were to devote their attention 

 more especially to the treatment of the horse, but, along with it, 

 to the care of the whole of our domestic animals, as on the pre- 

 servation of their health depended in a great degree the material 

 wealth of this country. After stating that the business of the 

 examinations had been to him a source of unmixed satisfaction, 

 Dr Craigie said the progress made and the intelligence displayed 

 by the candidates for the certificate had been very remarkable. 

 It w^as scarcely necessary to advert to the great necessity and 

 importance of paying the utmost attention to those domestic 

 animals of which the members of the veterinary profession 

 might be said to have the charge, and which constituted such a 

 large proportion of the material wealth of our country. There 

 were tv.-o great elements in our domestic economy — the one was 

 the breeding of stock, and the other agriculture. These were 

 closely connected, and unless we could understand aright the 

 diseases to which these domestic animals were subject, and the 



