598 
THE YOUATT TESTIMONIAL. 
Mr. Youalt replied. I will not (said he) insult you, nor the cause which 
has brought us together to-night, by any of those hackneyed professions 
of inability and unworthiness which have been occasionally repeated, usque 
ad nauseam. The cause of veterinary science is worthy of our devotion to it, 
and he who is now addressing you deserves some portion of your regard, 
or he would not exultingly, yet every faculty overpowered, now stand before 
you. Believe him that he never dreamed that you would so highly estimate 
his humble labours — or that the choicest and the best of our profession, and 
in every part of the United Kingdoms, would contribute to the presentation 
of such a testimonial of regard and esteem. He would be more or less than 
man if he did not feel your kindness, — if his old heart did not beat again with 
some of its pristine force, and glow with the ardour and the gratitude of which 
it could be conscious in by-gone days. 
Your are pleased, Gentlemen, to connect this splendid Testimonial with my 
“ literary labours in veterinary science.” Although I confess that I was early 
attached to literary pursuits, and gave to them many a leisure hour that 
ought, perhaps, to have been otherwise employed, and, under a feigned sig- 
nature, added one or two works to our stock of general literature, which 
were not unfavourably received, but which I am pledged not yet to acknow- 
ledge, I did not forget the profession to which I had devoted myself, and 
some hours were daily, perhaps I ma} r more properly say nightly, spent in 
the patient accumulation and recording of facts ; but, during nearly sixteen 
years from my entrance at the Veterinary College, I think I can truly say, 
that I never once thought of becoming a veterinary writer. 
Why was this ? Because entering into partnership with one whose name 
will ever be connected with the history of the early improvement of the vete- 
rinary profession — I refer to Mr. Blaine — I never so far forgot myself as to 
think of successfully rivalling him, or, if I had vainly and foolishly encou- 
raged for a moment such an idea, the deep impression of the dishonour that 
would have been linked with such an attempt would have checked me in my 
foolish career. Identifying myself with his cause in the early part of my 
attendance at the College, and almost daily fighting his battles in an institu- 
tion at which he was undervalued and maligned, I had subjected myself to a 
series of persecution which somewhat abated the ardour of my private 
studies, and, I thought, would never have permitted me to appear on a public 
arena. In addition to all this, the personal experience which I had had of 
the mode in which the education of the veterinary pupil was conducted-^ 
the systematic delusion which was practised, in order to arrest the progress 
of improvement, and to prevent the profession to which I had attached my- 
self from assuming its proper rank among the sciences — the studied encou- 
ragement which was given to the groom and to the farrier’s son, and the sneer 
and the cold rebuke with which the attainments of the educated pupil were 
regarded and repudiated — the plain and palpable effort to widen and to 
deepen the chasm between the practitioner of human and veterinary surgery — 
when I beheld all this, I was astounded and disgusted. That sentence still 
rings in my ears, for it was rarely omitted in the introductory lecture, “We 
must look to the sons of grooms and farriers for practical veterinarians.” But 
I refrain. The chief mover in those scenes is no longer among us. Sit illi 
terra levis! 
I looked at the works of our few veterinary authors. James Clarke had 
passed away, but I read his publications on the general management of the 
horse, and on shoeing, with pleasure, and with much profit too. There was 
a straightforwardness about him which I could understand and appreciate. 
That Professor Coleman’s work on the Foot of the Horse formed a part of 
my little library, you may be well assured. The beauty and the accuracy of 
