THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



441 



So much for youi' part in tLis day's proceedings. Let 

 me now congratulate the College upon the fact that our 

 relations with other bodies are both maintained and ex- 

 tended. The Royal Agricultural Society of England still 

 proffers its annual grant of £W) in furtherance of our ob- 

 jects, inseparably connected, as they are rightly felt to be, 

 with agriculture. 



I may here also mention that the late Professor Coleman 

 made a bequest to the College for the emulation of the 

 students in the pursuit of veterinary science ; and from the 

 accumulated interest of this bequest, the governors have 

 determined, at the close of each session, to give medals and 

 a certificate of merit for the best essay upon any subject, to 

 be chosen by the professors, who also will have the awarding 

 of the respective prizes. 



It always gives me the greatest pleasure to signalize the 

 union existing between the medical profession and our own, 

 and I am happy to say that that union was never closer than 

 it is at this moment. This is indeed what it should be. Hu- 

 manity is, and ought to be, the boast of both. Nor are we 

 degraded in the fact that in our humane calling science is ap- 

 plied to the alleviation of the sufferings of creatures lower than 

 ourselves. The reality of the science is the same with us both» 

 and even the general text books of our professions are the 

 same. Our board of examiners is partly selected from the 

 eminent men of the medical profession — a constitution which 

 I believe is calculated, under the present circumstances, to 

 contribute to the honour, the attainments, and the eflSciency 

 of our profession. I believe that this alliance of the Royal 

 College of Veterinary Surgeons with the teachers of human 

 medicine is a wise provision of the council of that body, whe- 

 ther it regards the social standing of our members or the 

 general scientific progress of the examined. Our status is 

 now, indeed, a recognized fact, for veterinary surgeons, as you 

 are well aware, hold commission both at home and in India in 

 the service of Her Moat Gracious Majesty. Let me here pay 

 a moment's tribute to a long-tried friend, I mean Mr. Wil- 

 kinson, the principal veterinary surgeon in the army, who, by 

 virtue of his office, institutes a court of examiners for veterin- 

 ary candidates for the army. For this post I believe him ad- 

 mirably qualified, a man, in short, in everyway calculated to 

 raise his profession ; gentlemanly, amiable, and humane, as 

 those of you will experience who have the honour to appear 

 before him. Mr. Wilkinson is also the present president of 

 our corporation; and I know of no man in our profession 

 better fitted to fill with becoming dignity and usefulness that 

 high and honourable position. The veterinary profession now 

 extends all over the civilized world, and it may be said that the 

 sun never sets upon us. Nevertheless, there are nooks and 

 corners in this country into which it is our legitimate province 

 to penetrate, but where we are as yet but scantily admitted. 

 The turf, methiuks, with its splendid animals; representing 

 great fortunes, yields ua but a poor return of patients. The 

 work of veterinary medicine seems there to be principally 

 transacted by trainers and grooms. Are we too honest, or 

 not reputed honest enough to be consulted in cases where 

 great responsibility and confidence are involved ? The pos- 

 session of a favourite race-horse seems to plant a fence of 

 secrecy and suspicion far around the stable ; and only the 

 uttermost confidence felt in the veterinary surgeon will en- 

 able him to pass within the barrier. It is almost like the care 

 of an eastern harem, in which the ladies are kept under lock 

 and key. We ought, however, to stand high enough to be pri- 

 vileged to enter, especially as the inmate, which is the centre 

 of ft tiiousand costly chances, holds the balance of probabili- 



ties on his general good health and nervous tone, end conse- 

 quent fitness for the race. 



And now uiy task would be done, but I began these re- 

 marks by alluding to humanity as contributing, as it were, 

 the very heart heat that evolves the true love of our profes- 

 sion, and ensures the efiiciency of those who practise it. I 

 am proud to say that I am a meaiber of the committee of 

 the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 

 and as such I feel it my duty to tell you that in May last I 

 was selected to form one of a deputation to proceed to 

 Paris, there to co-operate with a French society having 

 similar objects, for the purpose of endeavouring to put an 

 end to the horrid and revolting barbarities of vivisection 

 which are practised day after day in the veterinary schools 

 of iVlfort and of Lyons. There, in these temples for the 

 alleviation of animal suffering, for the scientific evolution 

 of pity into good works— there, in the wide pleasure-places 

 of an Emperor, who is the eldest son of the Church, and 

 whose will rushes with succouring thousands to the bleed- 

 ing Christianity of Syria — there twice a week is cruelty, 

 under the hypocritical mask of science, perpetrated which 

 is almost without 'a parallel in the history of this planet. 

 A stream of blood seems to run from it over the whole 

 vete-rinary profession of France, and ill comports with the 

 white-robed ministers of the healing art. 



The facts are these : At Alfort, which I visited, and slill 

 more T hear at Lyons, the pupils ai'e instructed in surgery 

 by cutting up living horses ! Oh, then, is surgery fiend- 

 hood? Two days a week, at 9 o'clock in the morning, the 

 doomed horse is cast ; and then hei s subjected to all sorts 

 of surgical operations, such as firing, neurotomy, cutting 

 away pieces of the cartilage of the foot— operating as for 

 stone in the bladder, extirpating the parotid and other 

 glands, or the eyes ; or any organ that forceps can pull, or 

 that knives and saws can reach. Steel and fingers, guided 

 by stony hearts, invade the poor animal at all points. 

 These operations on the same horse last from nine o'clock 

 in the morning until four in the afternoon ; unless, indeed, 

 he becomes unfit for the diabolism by dying in the mean- 

 time. Now, that is what I went over to France to expostu- 

 late against. I fear, however, that our deputation made but 

 slight progress towards effecting what I think you will all 

 admit was, on the part of the society, a most benevolent 

 object. To talk of the necessity of these horrors for the 

 purpose of teaching surgery is, T contend, utterly absurd. 

 Here, I am bold to say, we can operate when it is needful 

 quite equal to the French veterinarian, though we have not 

 learnt the art by these direful practices. Our human sur- 

 geons, too, are many of them men of consummate skill, 

 though they have not learnt it by cutting and slashing living 

 human beings. The same, indeed, may be said of human 

 surgeons all over the civilized world ; and yet if there is any 

 necessity for it in one, surely there is the same necessity 

 in the other. There is not, in fact, a pretext for these acts, 

 but they stand revealed as naked fiendhood ; and I hesitate 

 not to say, that everyone who has systematically pursued 

 them has become of necessity enamoured of cruelty, and is 

 out of the possible pale of the healing art. 



I hope, gentlemen, the voice of indignant Humanity will 

 rise far and wide, from our profession and from the excel- 

 lent society to which I have alluded— nay, and from all 

 England, where compassion is ever quick to flow towards 

 suffering — until this bloody spot on the veterinary schools 

 of France is wiped away for ever. It is most painful to me 

 to be forced Jto comment upon the proceedings of our 



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