408 LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
Address to the Members of the Lancashire Veterinary Medical Association, 
delivered at Manchester, March 16 th, 1870, by the President, George 
Morgan, M.R.C.V.S., Liverpool. 
Gentlemen, — My first duty is to thank the members of this 
Association for the high honour they have conferred upon me in 
electing me to preside over them for the ensuing year. 
In doing so, I find it difficult to express my feelings in words, as 
the pride and pleasure which naturally inspires the breast of any 
properly constituted individual on the attainment of so distinguished 
an honour are, in my case, damped and repressed by serious mis- 
givings as to my fitness to discharge the important duties devolving 
upon me in the manner they ought to be discharged, or, I may add, 
in the manner they have been discharged by my distinguished 
predecessors ; however, this I will say, that the good of the profes- 
sion I have at heart, and assured as I am of your warm support, I 
return you my sincere thanks. 
On assuming this chair I cannot but refer, and that with the 
deepest feelings of mourning and respect, to one whose great career 
on this earth is now closed ; he was the first president of this 
Association, and I need not recall to your minds the great and 
untiring zeal he displayed in the discharge of his duties. 
But where now is his great mind, that clear judgment, that 
penetrating intellect, that skilful hand, that warm heart overflowing 
with the milk of human kindness ? Alas, the silver cord is loosed, 
and the wheel is broken at the cistern ; the light of his open intel- 
ligent countenance will never again beam upon us, or his voice of 
wisdom be heard in our midst ; but his memory we can cherish, 
and endeavour to follow in his footsteps ; and if we all resembled 
our departed friend the reproach of indifference to the highest 
duties of our existence, which is often cast against the profession, 
would be heard no longer. 
I shall not further indulge in such mournful reflections, but 
surfcly it is a good and a wise thing sometimes to school the heart 
by thinking on the virtues of the great and good who trod the path 
of life before us, and the most sincere tribute we can pay to their 
memory is imitation of their example. 
In briefly addressing you on this occasion, I shall not attempt to 
drag you through the past history of the profession ; that has already 
been so ably done by my predecessors that it would be presump- 
tuous for me to occupy your time by further alluding to it, except 
incidentally, and in connection with the present, which is the only 
time we can call ours. 
"Well, what is the present state of the profession ? In many 
ways much the same as it was fifty years ago. At that time there 
were many men in the profession, gentlemen who knew their busi- 
ness, and w r ere respected and esteemed by all who knew them ; 
while at the same time there were men who possessed the same 
title to practise the veterinary art, rude, ignorant boors, whose edu- 
