VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
699 
teacher to whom the interest of every member of his class was not dear — 
who did not witness with exultation the improvement and the onward pro- 
gress of his pupil, and who would not perish rather than cross his path. 
The gentlemen to whom he alluded were still lecturers, and to a certain, and 
excusable and natural extent, they might hesitate to say all that passed in 
their minds. He had been a lecturer, but he had arrived at that time of life 
when he feared longer to hazard the little reputation he might have acquired. 
“ In honour of his age,” he had demanded of those with whom he had been 
connected to “ dismiss their veteran soldier off the stage.” He had a right to 
claim from his friends, from the whole of the present assembly, the privilege 
of proposing “ Prosperity to the veterinary student.” 
He would not tire them with any long and serious admonitions with regard 
to propriety of conduct in this the most important period of their lives. He 
would not calculate the proportionate criminality of being drunk in the morn- 
ing or at night. The time and place were not now fitting for admonitions 
like these. He would occupy other ground better suited to the joyous feeling 
to which we naturally abandoned ourselves at such a meeting as this. 
They have attached themselves to the veterinary profession — he would 
tell them that it was a noble profession, and worthy of the exertion of every 
power to prepare themselves for the practice of it. He would call on them 
to witness the improvement which had been effected in the knowledge and 
treatment of the diseases of the horse ; and he would entreat them to iden- 
tify themselves still more with the interests of their country. He would di- 
rect their attention to the eight or ten millions of cattle which the United 
Kingdoms contained — the nearly forty millions of sheep which wandered on 
our mountains or our plains — and to view the maladies which so wofully 
prevailed among them, and the sums which were subtracted by their death 
from the wealth of the empire : and he would ask them whether they could 
select a nobler object of ambition, than to enable themselves, by and by, 
to stand in the breach and bid the devastation cease. The rot in sheep, 
who would not be immortalized if he could discover a cure for it? But 
liis instruction does not reach to these points — at least it does not so 
effectually. It must, it will soon, and he would win golden opinions 
from all sorts of men, by whose word, and a word would do it, it was thus 
extended. 
He referred to the gradual, the rapid change which was taking place in 
the agricultural community. The establishment of societies, and of perio- 
dical meetings, in which the interests of the farmer are discussed, and, 
among other things, inquiry is made how the weal of the farmer as con- 
nected with the life and health of his cattle may be better secured. Such 
societies have long existed in Scotland, and to each of them belongs a 
veterinary surgeon. He is the recognized officer of the society — he is ap- 
pealed to, whenever his professional knowledge will be of avail. These 
societies exist on almost every part of the continent; they are found in France, 
in Belgium, in Switzerland, in most of the Germanic states. Several of these 
societies within a certain district amalgamate, and there is an annual, or 
more frequent meeting, and certain questions are discussed, and prizes are 
awarded, and, as often as otherwise, a veterinary surgeon is the presiding 
officer. Why ? He is a component part of the agricultural body, and his 
education and his studies best fit him for presiding over the accomplishment 
of the general agricultural interest. Is it so among us ? These societies 
are fast embodying themselves. There are nearly a hundred of them. But 
has each its veterinary surgeonal body ? No! He has not yet been recog- 
nized as a portion of the agriculture : his education has not been carried on 
with that view. Here, then, is a fine field for you. Improve the few advan- 
