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VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. YU, No. 73.] JANUARY, 1834. [New Series, No. 13- 
THE INTRODUCTORY LECTURE, 
Delivered Nov. 20, 1833, 
BY 
WILLIAM PERCIVALL, M.R.C.S., & V.S., 
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 
Gentlemen, 
IN consequence of the lamented ill-health of your excellent 
instructor, and my estimable friend, Mr. Youatt, you behold me 
before you this evening as his willing, but, I fear (as the sequel 
may prove), his imperfect representative. Hardly a month ago I 
had no more idea of being called to such an honour, than any one 
who now hears me may have entertained. But the Council of 
this Institution having expressed their unwillingness that these 
Lectures should be discontinued, even for a single course, 
and suggested to the Lecturer the expediency of his providing 
himself, during his indisposition, with a substitute, Mr. Youatt 
has been induced (I presume in the spirit of friendship) to call 
on me. And since, gentlemen, I have answered that call, all I 
can say is, that I must do my best in the execution of the trust 
which my friend has done me the honour to repose in me; at 
least, to the extent that my own health, which has for some con¬ 
siderable time past been but indifferent, will permit me to exert 
myself. 
Veterinary Science, gentlemen, may be taken in its 
fullest sense to mean medical zoology. Though, for many rea¬ 
sons, we have selected the horse as the principal object of our 
study ; yet is there no animal—no quadruped, at least—that 
can be said to stand without the pale of its investigations. Such 
as are called domestic animals, it is true, form the ordinary sub¬ 
jects of our care: this, however, arises simply from the circum¬ 
stance of their coming so frequently under our notice, and not 
from any prescribed limits set to the science itself. 
The pre-eminent station the horse occupies among other do¬ 
mestic quadrupeds, he owes to the variety of ways in which he 
contributes to our profits as well as to our pleasures, and to the 
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