756 
PROFESSOR MORTON S 
veterinary surgeon is required to be even more varied and gene- 
ral than that of the human surgeon, for he is without those aids 
which the latter receives while pursuing his calling. His patients 
have not the power of speech by which they can tell him their 
sensations ; nor can they point to the substance of which they 
may have partaken, and by which the evil has been effected. 
They cannot expose the cruelty to which they have been sub- 
jected, nor single out the miscreant who has been guilty of it. 
Neglect must be conjectured, and covert acts made known by 
symptoms only ; and these the educated and observant man can 
alone detect. 
The medical man, however, practising which branch he 
may, — should have the basis of his knowledge laid in the phy- 
sical sciences. They are the foundations on which to raise the 
superstructure, and this will be enduring in proportion to the 
solidity of the information he has acquired. The shallow pre- 
tender — for he is such who has neglected to cultivate his under- 
standing — will be as a man who has imprudently built his house 
upon the sands. He cannot endure the storm: and throughout 
life it will be found that he alone can, who in his youth has been 
anxious to acquire those principles on which he may securely 
rest; these being based on investigations into Nature, and a 
correct observance of her laws. What, I would ask, is right 
theory, but a knowledge of correct principles? and sound practice 
is only the application of it. Whence it follows, that he is the 
best practitioner who is the best theorist ; for although the be- 
ginner may not evince the tact which the experienced man does, 
yet time will bring this about ; on the other hand, it follows 
as a necessary consequence, that he who is false in theory is 
wrong in practice. 
Should it even be the case that you are never called upon to 
give a reason why you have adopted such a course of procedure, 
is there not a glow of pleasing satisfaction, which on reflection 
pervades the mind, arising from a conviction that you are right? 
Contrast this with the doubts and fears that must arise in the 
breast of an ignorant man, and then say if there is no benefit to 
be derived from knowledge! 
From the cursory observations that have been made, we de- 
duce the value and importance of an acquaintance with the 
sciences generally, and more especially with that designated 
chemistry. And this is to be viewed, not in reference merely to 
the drugs which you may employ in your practice, but in its 
application to agriculture, to soils, to the growth of vegetables, 
to the arts, and to life ; for although the animal machine is not 
a laboratory, there is no questioning the position that chemical 
