FRENCH VETERINARY SOCIETIES. 
213 
just closed, will make it unnecessary for me to enter into any 
detail relating thereto. I shall confine myself to calling your 
attention, gentlemen, to the act of kindness of M. le Ministre 
d' Agriculture et Commerce, protector of the Central Society, 
through whom questions of veterinary medicine connected with 
agriculture have been submitted to the concours, and that, this 
year, as in 1846, our brethren have replied to the appeal made to 
them, by addressing numerous interesting memoirs to the Central 
Society. The report about to be read to you will put you in a 
position to appreciate the merit of these papers, as well as the 
studious care the Society has taken to thoroughly examine them. 
These are not the only testimonies of esteem and confidence 
the Central Society has received from veterinarians. A great 
number, French and foreign, have solicited and obtained the title 
of corresponding members, and, thanks to this present concours, 
henceforth the Society may expand its scientific irradiations not 
merely into divers parts of France, but even for the most part 
throughout Europe. 
After nearly sixty years of my life devoted to the study and 
advancement of veterinary medicine, I find myself looking upon 
its onward progress with, gentlemen, a feeling of pride which you 
will well understand, and no doubt pardon me for entertaining. To 
my eyes they are but the presages of renewed success, leading 
me to hope that the Central Society, so worthy of its name, will 
become the rallying focus for every veterinary association that 
may spring up in France, and that it will ever hold the foremost 
rank among them, and so realize the hopes expressed at its in- 
stitution by the minister who founded it. 
From time immemorial, academies and faculties of medicine 
have perpetuated the memory of Hippocrates, by awarding to 
their laureates medals bearing his effigy. In imitation of the 
same, the Royal and Central Society of Agriculture has by simi- 
lar means immortalized the father of agriculture, OLIVIER (of 
Serre). The Central Society of Veterinary Medicine, gentlemen, 
has thought that such good examples ought to be followed, and 
therefore has, in its turn, caused to be struck a medal bearing the 
effigy of the founder of veterinary schools, the immortal Bour- 
GELAT, and this medal will be for authors of papers to which 
prizes have been awarded. 
Bourgelat, gentlemen, as you are well aware, not only founded 
our schools, but was the originator of La Medecine Vcterinaire 
raisonnee. By this double claim, and by many others that might 
be mentioned, is he entitled to the homage the Central Society 
has paid him. 
These medals, given as the reward of merit, will be received by 
