090 THE ANNUAL ORATION, 
which we see pursued with so much vigour by the leading men 
in every kind of profession at the present day. 
With this impression forcibly on my mind, I feel persuaded 
that the professors of the Royal Veterinary College, and every 
graduated member of that college throughout thekingdom, should 
tender their zealous support for the accomplishment of this under- 
taking. 
When it is seen that every succeeding year brings with it an 
accession to the list of aspirants for veterinary fame — and, as a 
convincing proof, I have need only to cast my eye around upon 
the numerous class of pupils before me, whom I have now the 
honour of addressing — who, after pursuing every branch of study 
with an intensity of zeal, maintaining their character unim- 
peached as gentlemen during the progress of their pupillage, 
make their final exit from the Royal Veterinary Institution 
crowned with the possession of all its honours — surely, say I, they 
are justly entitled to the benignant countenance of their preceptor 
during their after-struggle : and a good parent never deserts its 
offspring under any conceivable circumstance. Still, the more 
important feature of being well placed and settled in after-life, 
and turning those high attainments to a profitable account, are 
matters for grave consideration ; as, upon carrying out the practical 
branches of an art with credit, will depend not only the mainte- 
nance but the requisite competency which every veterinarian, 
after years of trial and anxiety spent in his public career, becomes 
fairly entitled to, amid the shoals and quicksands that invariably 
beset the path of the most successful, often requiring to be com- 
bated with energy or met by forbearance suited to each parti- 
cular source of annoyance. 
I say, unhesitatingly, that a young practitioner’s start into the 
practical part of his profession is a crisis f and one of the most im- 
portant during life ; and every formidable barrier to his success- 
ful progress should, if possible, be removed, or so weakened that 
its remaining existence may be reduced to a mere matter of in- 
difference. 
The legislature having already hinted to us, and also to some 
medical friends, their non-interference with the empirical practice 
of the healing art, every effort in our power as a substitute for 
legislation that will in any degree lessen so crying an evil ought 
to be had recourse to ; with the sincerest motives, therefore, I 
have humbly to recommend the following system of policy, 
which, if followed, would most effectually strike at the root of 
the evil. 
On the application of an individual to become a pupil at the Royal 
