666 THE INTRODUCTORY LECTURE OF MR. FIELD. 
most every important fact connected with and elucidative of those 
sciences, we were indebted to our medical brethren in this country 
and in France. 
In order to convince you of the importance attached to the study 
of comparative anatomy and physiology by the College of Sur- 
geons, I would refer you to the museum belonging to that learned 
body. Who that visits this princely collection for the first time, 
can avoid being struck with the vast majority of preparations con- 
nected with the sciences to which I have just made allusion ! but 
how much is his astonishment and admiration increased, when he 
learns that of these at least three-fourths are the produce of the un- 
assisted labours of one man ? — that to the consummate skill and 
indefatigable perseverance of the late John Hunter that learned 
body are indebted for, perhaps, the most splendid monument of 
scientific research that ever adorned and enriched this or any other 
country ; and let it never be forgotten, that that great man was one 
of the earliest promoters, patrons, and benefactors of our College, 
shewing incontrovertibly the importance which he attached to veteri- 
nary science. In this collection the common observer, unlearned in 
the mysteries of science, cannot fail to discover beauties: but the 
eye of the philosopher alone can distinguish their real value ; for 
here he finds, arranged in regular series, the varied gradations of 
nature, from the simple zoophyte, whose thread of existence hangs 
between the animal and vegetable world, until he arrives at the 
most beautiful, the most perfect, and at the same time the most 
complex, of created beings, — man himself. 
Gentlemen, if a solitary individual, and he, commencing the 
study of his profession at a time of life when students in general 
are expected to have perfected themselves in the groundwork of 
theirs, and labouring under disadvantages that would have damped 
the ardour of any ordinary mind, being left in very early life to 
his own resources, his education wholly neglected, and bound to a 
business that he detested ; — I say, if one man alone, under such 
untoward circumstances, has been able to achieve so glorious a 
work, what ought not to be expected from us as a body! Very 
many of the researches of that great man are of inestimable value 
to the veterinary surgeon ; but, independent of their intrinsic and 
individual merit and worth in a scientific point of view, they serve 
as beacons to guide and direct him. They tell him, in language 
which cannot be misunderstood, that whatever difficulties may be- 
set his path, however adverse fortune may at times appear, still, 
if he perseveres with diligence, and if he maintains a determinate 
resolution to prosecute his calling with honour and reputation, he 
will eventually succeed. 
It may be the opinion of some, that the researches of Johu 
