COLLEGE REMINISCENCES. 
105 
the entrance fee, I should certainly have bade Mr. Coleman, his 
pupils, and the College, adieujfor ever. I had foolishly considered 
that my knowledge of medicine and human surgery would have 
given me an advantage over those who had not obtained such 
acquirements : but “ such learning/ 5 says the Professor, is is 
not called for in the veterinary practitioner. 5 ’ I was fond of 
horses and dogs, could ride tolerably well across a country after 
the hounds, but I could not shoe a horse, nor had I ever at¬ 
tempted to clean one. I had bled a horse twice or thrice, and 
had often administered balls ; but this was the extent of my prac¬ 
tical knowledge. 
The reader will perceive that my veterinary apercus at this 
period was not astonishingly luminous ; but, notwithstanding the 
bad encouragement Mr. Coleman gave me of succeeding in my 
new profession, with the happy alchemy of youth, which can ex¬ 
tract sweet honey from bitter flowers, I set about it with a hearty 
good will, and determined to persevere. 
Thank heaven ! I had not been endowed with one of those 
thorough-bred, snorting, champing, foaming sort of intellects 
which run away with common sense, and who is jerked from his 
saddle at the beginning of his wild career: mine was a good 
steady, useful hack, which trots along the high road of life, keep¬ 
ing on his own side, and only stumbling a little now and then 
when I happen to be careless,—ambitious only to arrive safely at 
the end of his journey—not to pass by others. 
By the advice of a pupil, I obtained Blame and Percivall’s 
works on veterinary medicine; and Richerand and Bichat on 
physiology. I paid particular attention to the different patients 
in the College, and never missed an opportunity of attending the 
lectures of old Cross on morbid anatomy, when any of them were 
unfortunate enough to die. 
By these means the pupil will acquire a knowledge of morbid 
anatomy, which he never will have an opportunity of gaining 
in a country practice. The importance of pathological or mor¬ 
bid anatomy I need hardly impress on the pupil. He who has 
the advantage of comparing the symptoms, or the external signs, 
which he observed during life, with the morbid change ot struc¬ 
ture visible on inspection after death, learns with exactness what 
the external sign denotes ; that is, what state of the internal 
organ it expresses. Having this knowledge, he knows with 
exactness what to attempt by the remedies which he employs ; 
among numberless remedies he knows which to choose, as being 
the best fitted to accomplish the end in view; and his remedy 
being chosen, he knows the proper strength, the proper time, the 
proper frequency,—in a word, the proper mode in which to exhibit 
