THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XVI, No. 192. DECEMBER 1843. New Series, No. 24. 
THE INTRODUCTORY LECTURE OF MR. FIELD AT 
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE VETERINARY 
SESSION OF 1843-4. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen, 
TWELVE months have elapsed since we had the satisfac- 
tion of listening to the eloquent Oration of Mr. Thomas Turner, 
and we have now met once more to celebrate our anniversary. 
If we take a retrospect of the veterinary art some fifty years 
ago, and compare the worse than Cimmerian darkness in which it 
was at that time involved with the brighter and more wholesome 
atmosphere with which it is at the present day surrounded ; if we 
mark how it has broken through the meshes of ignorance in which 
it was so long entangled, and how it now stands out in bold relief, 
acknowledged by the professors of human medicine as a sister art, 
I would ask, have we not just cause for encouragement] It is, 
indeed, a subject for gratulation, and should serve to stimulate us 
on our onward course. 
That a new era has, within the last few years, dawned upon us, 
the most sceptical must allow. Of this fact we need no stronger 
confirmation than the circumstance of so many highly-gifted indi- 
viduals having risen like stars in our horizon, who, by their 
writings, have added a lustre and dignity to veterinary science — 
have contributed, in an eminent degree, to satisfy the cravings 
after knowledge which have become daily more and more evident; 
and have, by their labours, afforded facilities to our younger 
brethren which cannot be too thankfully appreciated, and to which 
the pupil of former days was an utter stranger. Of living authors 
in our own country, the names of Blaine, Clark, Dick, Morton, 
Percivall, Spooner, Turner, Youatt, and of many others, will not 
soon be effaced from the memory of the veterinarian ; and, as 
regards France, I may refer to Buchoz, Chabert, Dupuy, Flandrin, 
VOL. XVI. 4 U 
