INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
793 
positions of the various parts, that is, the anatomy, of the 
lower animals, and of the functions or physiology of their 
organs. Too much attention cannot be paid to these subjects, 
for without a sound knowledge of them the practice of 
medicine becomes empiricism. 
For the proper understanding of physiology, as well as for 
the comprehensive application and advancement of most 
other branches of medical knowledge, an acquaintance with 
chemistry is demanded. 
Unfortunately for this science, and unfortunately for 
medicine generally, the majority of medical men either 
neglect chemistry as much as possible or are content with a 
mere smattering of it, and consequently, as is invariably 
the case with those possessing but little information on a 
subject, they fail to realise its importance. Were our students 
required to render their acquaintance with chemistry as 
thorough and as practical as they are that of anatomy, by 
pursuing a course of laboratory instruction, most of the 
difficulties which beset the path of the beginner would be 
removed, and an interest, which the mere attendance on 
lectures fails to engender, would be excited in a branch of 
knowledge which has contributed, and which is capable of 
contributing, more than any other to the progress of practical 
medicine. In proof of the correctness of this assertion I 
might refer you to the works of Dr. Parkes, Dr. Garrod, Dr. 
Ballard, and others, wherein you will find records of patho- 
logical, physiological, and hygienic investigations of the 
highest importance to all engaged in the preservation of health 
or the cure of disease, and of which we should have been 
deprived had not these gentlemen been sound practical 
chemists as well as experienced medical practitioners. In 
evidence also of the high estimation in which practical 
chemistry is held by our leading military medical men, I may 
state that every army surgeon, before he is permitted to join 
a regiment in his official capacity, is compelled to work for 
several months in the laboratories of the medical school 
attached to the Royal Military Hospital at Netley, notwith- 
standing that he is already in possession of the diploma of the 
Royal College of Surgeons or of some similar body. 
Inasmuch, then, as chemistry, together with anatomy and 
physiology, constitute the only secure basis for rational medical 
knowledge, let me again commend them to your particular 
attention, and at the same time express the hope that before 
long the veterinary student will be required to devote the 
whole of his first session at College to their study ; for beyond 
the direct benefit which the natural and experimental sciences 
