THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXX, 
No. 359. 
NOVEMBER, 1857. 
Fourth Series, 
No. 35. 
THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS 
DELIVERED 
By Professor Morton, 
AT THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
Session, 1857-8. 
Gentlemen, — I have been accustomed at the beginning 
of each session to bring before the class any discoveries made 
in connection with veterinary medicine, during the period 
that may have transpired between the termination of one 
course of lectures and the commencement of another; and if 
I refrain from doing so now the reason is twofold. First, 
it would be somewhat out of place in an address of this kind ; 
secondly, I am not aw T are that anything of importance has 
been discovered since we last met. I speak of course only in 
reference to our own profession, as science may be said never 
to stand still. Moreover, it is agreed that the present day is 
not one so remarkable for the discovery of principles as for 
their application. It has been, indeed, stated that we live in 
an age of disinterments, realising constantly the paradox that 
the history of antiquity has only just begun. And this not 
only in exhuming cities, and bringing to light records long 
buried in the sands of the desert, by which truths are con- 
firmed that were once laughed at by the scoffer and the 
infidel, but there is also a going back to theories long since 
set aside as untenable ; a reverting to explanations at one 
time considered unsatisfactory. In proof of this I might 
refer to the various systems of therapeutics extant, each of 
which has its supporters, and likewise to wUat has been 
designated the humoral pathology. It is true the views now 
entertained may not be so crude as they once were, still it is 
xxx. 81 
