AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 
15 
serviceable, alive or dead; nay, even the swine itself, must not 
be disregarded. All, gentlemen, have claims upon us ; and 
though the horse, from his being an especial favourite with his 
lord and master, and in particular from his comparatively great 
individual worth, demands our chief consideration, yet are the 
others, taken in the aggregate, a mass of national wealth which 
will well repay any pains we may take to include them in our 
investigations. 
A great deal, gentlemen, has been said on the score of im¬ 
portance or respectability of the veterinary profession. Its utility 
however has, of late years, been so generally felt and acknow¬ 
ledged, that one would think the importance of the art could no 
longer be doubted ; and as for the respectability and importance 
of its practitioners, that must at all times, and in all situations, 
more depend upon themselves than upon their calling. Con¬ 
sidering the few years that have passed over our heads since we 
all wore leather aprons ; and considering the great opposition the 
profession has met with from those who continue to wear leather 
aprons, and from some (to their discredit) who wear the garbs of 
men of science and gentlemen ; and considering the many other 
disadvantages under which the art—rising once again like the 
phoenix from its ashes—has had to struggle with, I think we can¬ 
not feel altogether so dissatisfied with the places we at present 
occupy among professions and callings in general. In the army, 
the profession has for many years been placed upon the most 
respectable footing : the veterinary surgeon now holds a king’s 
commission, which itself entitles the holder to every privilege 
enjoyed by an “ officer and gentleman and it is his own fault if 
he does not avail himself to the full of such an honourable en¬ 
dowment. In the French army this is not the case: in their 
service, veterinary surgeons rank but with quarter-masters, 
who, themselves, are not commissioned : the consequence is, that 
they are excluded both from the officers’ mess-table and from 
their association. Were this the casein our army, the service 
would never have reaped those benefits from veterinary science 
which, gentlemen, I dare affirm army characters will be found on 
all occasions most ready to acknowledge. 
At one time, glanders, farcy, grease, canker, &c. so infested 
our cavalry horses, that, year after year, numbers of them were 
lost to the country : now-a-days, however, some of these diseases 
are unknown,—never seen in regiments; while others make 
their appearance so rarely, as to give us hopes that, in the course 
of time, they may disappear likewise. 
The strongest opposition the profession has met with (and one 
the current of which runs still forcibly against us), is the turf — 
