THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XIV, No. 168.] DECEMBER 1841. [New Series, No. 108 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. 
AMONG the introductory lectures at the opening of the 
Medical Session of 1841-2, at which we have been present — and, 
from old habit, we generally attend as many of them as we can — 
we were particularly struck with that of Dr. Taylor, at Univer- 
sity College. There was a simplicity and plainness and straight- 
forwardness rarely found in these exhibitions, which could not 
fail of making a deep impression. It was afterwards published 
in that excellent periodical “ The Lancet.’’ From that periodi- 
cal chiefly we extract the following account of it, and, substi- 
tuting occasionally the word “ veterinary” for “ medical,” we 
cannot offer a more useful present to our readers, young and old. 
“ A knowledge of medicine is taught in two ways, essentially 
distinct, and both important. The one is by the delivery of a 
general course of lectures on what are called the principles and 
practice of medicine, and in which are described whatever apper- 
tains to the history and treatment of disease ; and the other con- 
sists in the actual demonstration of the phenomena so described, 
and the treatment pursued in the hospital. Each has its peculiar 
advantages, the one making us acquainted with the science, and 
the other qualifying us for the practice of the art of veterinary 
medicine. 
“ In the lectures on the principles and practice of medicine, 
the student is presented with a systematic view of the science, a 
summary of whatever has been observed in relation to the agen- 
cies that produce disease — the symptoms which distinguish 
them — the remedies which are used to relieve them — and their 
most ordinary termination. Whatever general precepts have 
been arrived at by the united labours of medical men in all ages, 
whether relating to the nature and laws of diseased action, the 
circumstances giving rise to it, or those known to relieve it, are 
plainly stated. 
“ A few of the rarer forms of disease may scarcely come under 
our notice at all, while the more important ones will fre- 
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VOL. XIV. 
