THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
044 
acknowledge that the different divisions of it are harmoniously and 
beautifully connected with each other, but still the various animals 
which will come under his observation are not, to the degree which 
the talented Professor of the Edinburgh School supposes, “ formed 
on one general plan, and the analogy which exists serving to assist 
rather than retard the examination of the various subjects.” The 
zoologist might legitimately trace these analogies, but the business 
of the surgical anatomist is to discover the points of difference 
leading to a different discharge of the most simple functions, 
and — the all-important point in this case — dissimilar manifestations 
of disease, and difference of medical treatment which would scarcely 
be deemed possible. The principles of health and disease are few 
and simple. It is in the working out of these principles, governed 
by a thousand idiosyncrasies, that the difficulty consists. Depend 
upon it, the Assistant-Professor will have enough to do ; but, as the 
chairman at the late meeting told him, “ he is sound in wind and 
limb — his heart is in the right place,” and he will do his duty. 
The appointment of — the third Professor, it should have been, 
and will be, ere long, for the importance of the subjects on which 
he will have to lecture, and the talent of the man, will demand it — 
a Lecturer on Veterinary Pharmacy and the Materia Medica can- 
not fail of giving universal satisfaction. His duties also will be 
considerably extended, for his Pharmacy and his Materia Medica 
must now include every medicine that is used in every disease of 
every domesticated animal. 
It will, at no great distance of time, be considered part of the 
duty of this teacher or professor to prepare the pupil for the new 
inquiries to which his mind will be directed, ere he can mingle cre- 
ditably and usefully with the well-educated farmer. He will be 
taught the first principles of botany, and agricultural chemistry, 
and the nutritive principle of plants, and the chemical composition 
of soils and manures. Here will be a new and a wide expanse 
of study. A professor capable of thus directing the mind of the 
student will be indispensable in an institution that calls itself a 
school of veterinary instruction. 
A new and a very important regulation is the age of the candi- 
date for a diploma. Here was a flagrant error in the management 
of the Institution. In former times many a mere boy was dubbed 
