INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
627 
mistry as applied to veterinary medicine and materia medica ; 
the principles and practice of surgery and veterinary juris- 
prudence; while the art of shoeing will also receive some 
share of your attention. As to the means which are at your 
command to acquire a knowledge of these several sections of 
your profession — First, stands attendance on the lectures 
which will be delivered in this theatre by the several profes- 
sors. Here you must not only be regular and punctual, but 
careful to observe order and decorum, or you cannot hope to 
profit by this method of instruction. There is perhaps no plan 
of imparting information which is more pleasing and attrac- 
tive than viva voce discourses ; but at the same time there is also 
none which is more evanescent, and therefore, unless each 
hearer determines to make the matter his own, and to follow 
step by step as the lecturer leads on, he will depart little 
benefited, or not at all, by what he has heard. Nor must 
this suffice for a right understanding of the subject, for as 
the lecturer at most can be but your pioneer, so after he has 
placed the landmarks, you must fill up the interspaces by 
study and research. 
The second means I name is hospital practice. You 
must be equally strict in your attendance to this as to 
the lectures, for it is in the yard and stables of the 
institution where you will see daily brought into operation 
those principles which have been inculcated in the lecture- 
room. Disease and death are the lot of all. Man and 
animals are alike under the curse. But still it is our privilege 
to be permitted to alleviate suffering, and to be instrumental 
in removing disease. Here then is the origin of pathology, 
a knowledge of which is the great end and object of all your 
studies. It is also in your daily rounds of the infirmary that 
you will become practically acquainted with the examination 
of horses for soundness upon purchase. There are few 
things of more importance than this. Upon the correctness 
of your judgment more will often depend than you at the 
time can contemplate. Disputes may arise, litigation follow, 
and you be called upon to vindicate your opinion in a court 
of justice, where perchance you may find yourself opposed 
by one better versed in the nature of disease, and thus, by 
the evidence he gives, you may have to bear the stigma of 
disgrace as well as defeat ; or, on the other hand, by your 
knowledge of the subject you may successfully oppose con- 
flicting evidence, and win for yourself an honorable and 
lasting reputation. 
Thirdly, may be placed dissections. These have for their 
object a practical acquaintance with the several component 
parts of the animal body ; the relation which they bear to 
