370 DINNER OF THE FRIENDS AND STUDENTS OF THE 
culture.” He regretted that they had not the pleasure of the Professor’s 
company; but the arrival of a friend from Italy had prevented him from at¬ 
tending. He joined with the toast, “prosperity to agriculture,” because their 
prosperity depended on that of agriculture. If agriculture was not in a pros¬ 
perous state, there would be little need for veterinary surgeons; but he trusted 
that agriculture would advance with increased rapidity; that there might be 
a greater demand for agriculturists, and that would give additional employ¬ 
ment and encouragement to veterinary surgeons {Cheers.) 
Dr. Knox said he had been requested to propose as a toast “ Prosperity 
and success to the veterinary surgeons now round the board.” On this occa¬ 
sion he wished to say a few more words than merely giving the toast; and he 
should, therefore, like to address a word or two to the young gentlemen pre¬ 
sent. Ever since he had the pleasure of their acquaintance, and not only 
with them but with their predecessors in the class, the connexion had been one 
of unmingled pleasure and satisfaction to him. He did not know any circum¬ 
stance that had taken place, either with regard to the veterinary surgeons or 
their Lecturer and Professor, that was not productive of unmingled satisfac¬ 
tion on both sides; and the object at which they aimed was proceeding far 
towards fulfilment in their constant progress towards a more important and a 
higher status than they at first possessed. 
He thought that their success, as had already been ably expressed by others, 
was certain ; and, perhaps, he was not entitled to offer them advice; but he 
would wish them to bear in mind, that they differed in an important point 
from mechanics, in the common acceptation of the term. He did not wish to 
deprecate any trade or employment, however humble, to which any portion of 
the human race was called; but he wished to point out to them that their 
profession, as his own, distinguished them from mechanics, properly so called, 
and the distinction lay in this, that they would be compelled to mingle, in a 
greater or less degree, scientific attainments with the ordinary business of life. 
This was a distinction which now prevailed, and which probably would pre¬ 
vail between mechanics and themselves through all time. They heard, in¬ 
deed, sometimes rumours, and suspicions, and dark hints as if the art would 
suffer by the progress of mechanical science, and that the utility of their art 
would gradually become less by the extinction of that noble animal which was 
committed to their care. With respect to that be should say, “ sufficient to the 
day is the evil thereof”—if it come, let it come; but it would not come either 
in their day or in his, when the power of steam could supersede the horse in 
human affairs. 
They would further permit him to say, that he did not think that it would 
ever come: and he hoped it never would; for, with the cessation of the horse 
they would lose the ploughman—they would lose those stalwart arms which 
had already defended Britain in a thousand actions. He hoped, therefore, the 
day would never come when they would lose the horse and the man that 
guides it. 
He had also heard statements, that there was a probability of the College 
overstocking the country with the professors of this art. That was a com¬ 
plaint which was common both to their profession and to his own. Indeed, 
he found persons of a sceptical turn of mind, that questioned the utility of 
the art altogether. They must not take offence at such expressions ; because, 
when a man w'as struck down by machinery or by a musket-ball, or if a horse 
were to faU, the first words, even of these sceptical questioners, would be 
“ Bring a surgeon.” {Cheers.) But with respect to the over-extension of the 
art, he might be permitted to say that, from what he had seen both in foreign 
countries and in the colonies, he was satisfied that the art was yet far from 
having attained that extension which it would ultimately acquire. 
In the colonies their art was altogether unknown; the horse was neither 
fairly cultivated nor bred; and yet the colonies would only be held by that 
