THE INTRODUCTORY LECTURE OF MR. FIELD. 665 
So much for the practice of veterinary medicine and surgery. 
Do the duties of the practitioner end with his attendance upon his 
patients ? Are his leisure hours to be spent in idleness? Has he 
no farther obligations to perform ? Is he satisfied, I would ask, 
with the course of studies he pursued whilst at the College or else- 
where ? Most assuredly he is not, however favourable they may 
have been in assisting his introduction into life. He feels, when 
he enters upon his professional career, that his former studies were 
only preliminary to a more enlarged and extended course of read- 
ing. Instead of sitting down contented with the knowledge he 
acquired at the schools, he now takes a wider range. As far as 
time and opportunity will permit, he makes himself familiar with 
every work that treats of particular disease ; and thus he is enabled 
to compare the opinions of those who have preceded him in, the 
field of research with his own experience. His inquiring mind 
allows nothing to escape, however trivial at first sight it may 
appear, that may tend to perfect him in the knowledge and practice 
of his profession ; and thus he heaps up stores of information, to be 
brought into active play in his daily rounds of practice. It is by 
such means that the veterinary surgeon raises himself to eminence, 
ensures the confidence of the public, and evinces, beyond the pos- 
sibility of cavil, his qualifications for his calling, both by practical 
knowledge and by scientific attainments. 
I have great pleasure, gentlemen, in bearing my testimony to 
the improvement that has latterly taken place in the educational 
department of the Veterinary College, whereby a higher class 
of pupils graduate at that establishment than at any previous 
period : nor let me forget to express my hearty concurrence in the 
appointment of a Professor of Cattle Pathology in the person of our 
talented friend, Mr. Simonds. No one can doubt the propriety of 
this step ; and the only matter of surprise to my mind has been, 
that some such appointment had not taken place years ago. We 
can scarcely speculate too sanguinely upon its beneficial results. 
The energies of the veterinary surgeon will no longer be cramped 
within their former narrow and contracted sphere of action. His 
mind will occupy a wider compass, and he will grasp at more 
diffuse acquirements. His studies will doubtless embrace a more 
general knowledge of comparative anatomy and physiology ; and 
various sources of instruction will be now opened to him, which, 
however freely they may have been drawn upon by the human 
physiologist, have hitherto been to him little other than a sealed 
book. 
It may appear a humiliating confession to make, yet still it is 
no less true, that until within a very few years, for our entire know- 
ledge of animal physiology and comparative anatomy, and for al- 
