664 THE INTRODUCTORY LECTURE OF MR. FIELD. 
steer our course for the future — what to shun and what to pursue. 
The mind, like the body, requires nourishment and exercise, or its 
faculties become enervated, and it sinks into a state of torpid list- 
lessness and indifference ; and thus the object which ought to hold 
a prominent place in our duty, and to interest most especially our 
affections, loses its charm and its influence, and has no power to 
incite us to action. 
The veterinary surgeon, whose laudable ambition would lead him 
to attain to excellence in his art, and to earn well-merited fame, has 
no idle task to perform. With him there is no halting. His path 
is one of constant and continued progression, of assiduous applica- 
tion and of severe study. In the first place, he registers every case 
he may be called upon to attend, and he notes down each symptom 
as it presents itself — not in a desultory or hasty manner, but with 
due regard to method and regularity. He watches carefully and 
anxiously the effects of the various remedial agents he may have 
recourse to, so that, upon any future and similar occasion, upon re- 
ference to his note-book , he may know which to employ, and which 
to reject; and if, in spite of all the skill and attention he may have 
exercised, the case should terminate unfavourably, and the patient 
should die, he has the satisfaction of feeling that the result could 
not be attributed to any negligence on his part. But his office does 
not conclude here ; for now comes the post-mortem inquiry — a most 
essential and paramount duty — which under no circumstances what- 
ever does he venture to neglect ; for by this he not- only makes 
himself acquainted with the exact seat and extent of the disease, 
and satisfies himself as to the soundness or incorrectness of his own 
preconceived opinion, but he, at the same time, receives a most 
valuable lesson of morbid anatomy, a most important advantage, 
frequently denied to the human practitioner. 
In the surgical portion of his profession he is particularly studious 
to be neat in his operations, and to use as much dispatch as is com- 
patible with sound judgment and the safety of his patient; add to 
which, he always endeavours to preserve his self-possession. He 
well knows that by disregarding these three essentials, and by giv- 
ing way to an awkward and slovenly manner, his reputation must 
eventually suffer, and his future success in life be, in a great mea- 
sure, if not altogether, impeded. It was well remarked by the late 
Sir Astley Cooper (a name ever dear to the veterinarian, and 
whose opinions cannot fail to command his respect and attention), 
that a man’s skill was frequently judged of “ by his manner of 
bleeding, or from the application of a bandage ; and it sometimes 
happens that ‘the hand spoils the head*.”’ 
* Introductory Lecture. 
