106 
COLLEGE REMINISCENCES. 
it. lie does not work in the dark. He has a definite purpose 
to accomplish, and an instrument of known power with which 
to accomplish his purpose. 
I likewise visited the knackers at Smithfield twice a week, 
where, in spite of the obstacles thrown in my way by Mister 
Martin , of Galway , M.P., I acquired a skill in performing 
most of those surgical operations that were likely to occur in 
my practice. I mention these things enpassant, as they may be 
of service to other young men, situated like myself, who never 
had the good luck to have served as a groom in a nobleman’s 
stables, or worked at the forge for seven years prior to his enter¬ 
ing the College walls;—men who, according to the professor’s 
ideas, possess a kind of intuitive knowledge of horse flesh, as 
a vulture does of a dead horse that dies in the desert. But I 
am rambling rather from my subject. 
The Professor, in his introductory lecture, uttered along tirade 
against comparative anatomy: i( he disliked it,” he said, “ because 
that comparative anatomy oftentimes led to comparative physi¬ 
ology and comparative pathology.” He considered the horse as 
the only study of the veterinary pupil. Alas ! how many of my 
brethren have found the want of the very knowledge which the 
Professor condemns ex cathedra ! I have been informed, that^he 
still utters his anathemas against this most useful and impor¬ 
tant science, but in more guarded language than formerly. I 
can safely and advisedly assure the veterinary pupil, that, if he 
wishes to practise his art in all its various branches, he must be 
a comparative anatomist . He must be acquainted with the 
structure of the ox, the sheep, the swine, and the dog, as well as 
that of the horse. “ Comparative anatomy,” says Mr. Lawrence, 
“bears the same relation to the veterinary art that human anatomy 
and physiology do to medicine.” The peculiarities in the or¬ 
ganic structure and functions of particular genera or species lead 
to corresponding peculiarities in their diseases and derangements. 
Hence, a rational treatment of the disorders incidental to animals 
presupposes a knowledge of the generic and specific characters 
of internal organization. It seems superfluous to adduce the di¬ 
gestion of the ruminant order, or other analogous instances, in 
illustration of a truth so evident in itself. Indeed, to attempt 
to form proper notions of the seat and nature of the diseases of 
the various animals that properly belong to the practice of a 
veterinary surgeon, and likewise of the operation of remedies, is 
out of the question, without a knowledge of the general con¬ 
struction of the frames of his patients. Perhaps, indeed, a 
firm faith in drugs and plasters, and a liberal administration of 
them, may be the surer road to fortune ; but he who wishes to 
