PRESENTATION TO PROFESSOR WILLIAMS. 651 
roundings, he will favour the profession with the publication of his 
excellent lectures. 
Too true it is, gentlemen, that we lack much information on 
pathological subjects with which the human practitioner is ac- 
quainted. The whole of veterinary science has been too long con- 
fined to a few pocket volumes and vade mecums , which are generally 
little else than a detail of symptoms and a farrago of recipes worthy 
only of the dark ages ; but it is to be hoped that veterinary science 
will find by and bye sufficient talent amongst its votaries for the 
production of literary works more allied to those of the other pro- 
fession in worth and extent. 
In addition to our high sense of your qualities as a teacher, sir, 
it is the opinion we entertain of your personal qualities and kind- 
nesses, unwearied assiduity in all that concerns the welfare of the 
students of this college ; the friendly feeling existing between you 
and us, as well as the profession at large ; your honest labours in 
our behalf to promote the advancement of each and all ; to uphold 
the dignity of our calling ; to maintain the position that the veteri- 
nary surgeon should hold in society, and the estimation of the 
public as second only to the sister science ; your ceaseless efforts in 
imparting to us high and advancing views of our profession ; in 
inculcating the fundamental principles of science, and thus enable 
us to pursue the practical avocations to which we may be called with 
credit and success, which has called forth this expression of our 
feelings. 
In thus offering to you this tribute, we are reminded of the say- 
ing of a great author, that there is not a more pleasing exercise of 
mind than that of gratitude. It is accompanied by such an inward 
satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the perform- 
ance. It is the inherent impulse of generous minds — one of the 
purest which influences man ; and he who is so influenced feels no 
greater pleasure than in acknowledging his high appreciation of it 
by returning kindness with esteem. 
Need I ask you, gentlemen, if Professor Williams’s qualities, pro- 
fessional and personal, towards us individually, have not been such 
as to merit the association of such sentiments with his name ? 
Words, empty words, however, in such circumstances have been 
aptly compared to bubbles upon water, which expand upon its 
surface, become attractive to the eye, collapse, and vanish, leaving 
not a trace behind to mark the spot whence they arose, or the 
causes which gave them birth. This token which is now before you, 
sir, and which we are about to present to you, is composed of lasting 
materials, and forms the best answer to such a question. It is the 
spontaneous effusion of the 1 grateful hearts of a class of nearly one 
hundred students. And we ought — and I am sure we do, one and 
all of us — to feel proud of this opportunity of showing to you the 
respect and esteem we entertain for you. 
Allow me, then, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, in your names to 
present to Professor Williams this epergne, and in doing so express 
the hope that he may be long spared to preside over this institution, 
