988 WEST OF SCOTLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
I am now about to tread on very delicate ground, so I must 
proceed cautiously. Most of you are fully aware that disturbances 
of a very curious nature occurred last session within the walls of 
the Edinburgh Institution, and we all trust, for the future well- 
being of that school, that these disturbances are now at an end. 
Those who know the substantiated facts of this case, not only 
truly sympathise with Professor Williams in the peculiar position 
which he is placed, and exonerate him from all blame in this 
matter, but deplore that he has been obliged to bear in silence 
such a heap of uncalled-for newspaper abuse. Erom what I saw 
at a meeting of the Edinburgh Town Council, the animus there 
displayed, makes me inclined to believe that our old Alma Mater 
of the north is in peculiarly unmanageable hands. I may be 
bold in expressing when I tell you that I honestly think the 
Edinburgh Veterinary College and its atfairs are made a scape- 
goat of for political purposes. It is also lamentable to find the 
gift which Professor Dick so generously left to us — the profession 
— for our benefit, for our good — being frittered away in useless 
litigation. 
The removal by death of Professors Dalzell and Strangeways 
was a sad blow to the Institution, not only to the Institution, 
but to its present principal as well, for since their demise his bed 
has been one of thorns ; so let us all join in wishing that in future 
his bed will be a bed of roses. 
Professor McCall we have known most intimately for years, and 
1 am sure we, each of us individually and collectively, are de- 
lighted to see him again taking an interest in the doings of our 
association. Erom his very entry into the profession up to the 
present day, he has had a most distinguished career. Selected by 
Professor Dick to succeed Mr. Gamgee, he began teaching in 
Edinburgh the year he obtained his diploma, and it is needless 
for me to point out to you how well his work was done, for we all 
know that his first course of lectures was attended with marked 
success, not only in his teaching, but in the way he asso- 
ciated himself with his students in that bond of affection which 
is so pleasing to see existing between the teacher and the taught. 
And I may add, that for the thirteen years I have known him 
1 know not of a single instance where that bond has been . 
severed. 
As one of his original pupils, I thank, and I am sure my old 
fellow-student, our president, will join me in publicly thanking. 
Professor McCall for the many acts of kindness he at one time, as 
our teacher, so liberally bestowed on us. 
The reception his introductory lecture met with yesterday, 
surrounded as he was by so many friends, makes me say, 
with all due respect to the other teaching bodies, that they 
have found in his young but rising institution a most powerful 
rival. 
I could expatiate for a much longer time on Prof. McCall’s ability 
and many qualities, but being a personal friend of his, any further 
