766 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen, you are entering on the study of the profession 
of a veterinary surgeon. I heartily congratulate you ; for 
although, perhaps, undervalued, the profession is none the 
less a noble one ; it embraces a knowledge of animal life, of 
its health and disease, and in connection with this a study of 
the great principles and laws of natural phenomena. I know 
of no pursuit more exalted than the study of the wonderful 
and complex mechanism of the animal economy by which 
even life itself is manifested ; and when to this is added the 
power of doing good and affording relief to animals, who 
have little power to plead for or to obtain relief for them- 
selves. Dwell for a moment, and ask yourselves what calling 
bears comparison with such an occupation? What occupa- 
tion in life is more calculated to supply such material for 
thought and reason to feed upon ? What is more likely to 
ennoble the man, and raise him above his fellows ? 
If you are to master this profession, it is absolutely neces- 
sary that you should commence with a good scientific basis ; 
you must, at least, be grounded in chemistry, anatomy, 
physiology, and pathology. You must not be content to have 
a mere smattering of these sciences, hut must strive to gain 
a good thorough knowledge of each of them. And you will 
he able to attain this knowledge by attention to lectures, by 
reading, by dissection, by careful observation of health and 
disease in the infirmary, and during the examination of horses 
as to soundness, and by independent thought, observation, 
and reasoning. 
Let me show you, in accordance with my views, how you 
should, make the most of these means of learning. You will 
have an opportunity — indeed, you will be required — to attend 
daily to lectures upon each of the subjects of the curriculum. 
If you are desirous of deriving the greatest advantage from 
this mode of teaching, you will deem each subject of 
equal importance, and so secure for each an equal amount of 
care and attention. You will be an unfailing attendant, 
because, more frequently than otherwise, a subject occupies 
a series of lectures, and your absence from one will seriously 
interfere with your comprehension of the others. You will be 
a careful listener, so that no portion of the discourse escapes 
you, and in order that your inattention may not discompose 
the lecturer, or by its bad example prove injurious to those 
around you. You will also take notes of the subject 
matter of each lecture, to be enlarged upon subsequently 
by the aid of your memory, to impress it upon the mind, 
and for subsequent reference. When note-taking, do not 
attempt it too copiously, otherwise it will interfere with 
