PROFESSOR Coleman’s introductory lecture. 463 
indelible, why should he damp the ardour of a single iridi^ddual ? 
Why should he lacemte the feelings of a well-educated and sus¬ 
ceptible young'man? 
From some view of family connexion, or certainly from a 
conception of the respectability of our art, the medical student 
has been induced to quit his former pursuits, and to rank himself 
among us. The die is cast: he is gone too far to retract: his 
heart is full of good resolutions and ardent hopes; when, suddenly, 
comes a frost—a killing frost.’^ He is told, from the highest 
authority, that he probably will not succeed, and that the farrier’s 
son will be the better man. Surely this is uncalled for and cruel. 
What good object could this gratuitous condemnation effect, or 
how will the professor answer for those whose prospects he may 
have untimely blighted ? We know full well, that, when a young 
mail is taught to believe that he must make the worst practitioner, 
he will not fatigue himself jin endeavouring to become the best. * 
We will not say that it was the intention of the lecturer to 
frighten from the profession the man of education, and to confiiie 
the practice of our art to those who, previously to their admission 
into the college, possessed no scientific principles, and, at the col- 
_ * « 
lege, had no time to acquire them; but the evident effect of this 
gratuitous and absurd comparison is, to flatter the vanity and en¬ 
courage the idleness of the one, and check the ardour and mar the 
prospects of the other. 
In the present introductory lecture, however, the professor did 
not as formerly, and almost without preface, denounce the incom¬ 
petency of the medical student; but he began by very properly 
considering the different situations w^hence the veterinary students 
probably canie,- and the corresponding advantages or disadvantages 
under which they possessed. He spoke first of the medical stu¬ 
dent, and of the advantages he enjoyed ?—no, not so, for he 
would scarcely acknowledge him to have any; but he spoke of 
the previous direction of his studies, the employment of his time, 
and the habits he had formed. Here we should heartily coincide 
with him. You, gentlemen,” we should say with him, not- 
withstanding your medical acquirements, have much to do. 
You have to forget many of your former associations and asso- 
ciates. You have honestly and thoroughly to do that for which 
