VETERINARY COLLEGE, EDINBURGH. 
371 
description of force -w hich required the horse and the veterinary surgeon. It 
would take him hours to describe the miserable scenes which he had witness¬ 
ed in the colonies from the want of a few troops of cavalry and their accom¬ 
paniments. He believed that in the sands of Africa, or in the boundless 
plains of Hindostan, where ultimately the struggle for the existence of Bri¬ 
tain would take place—the foot soldiers would never be able to contend with 
that description of force with w'hich they were connected. He might refer 
to the struggle now going on in North Africa. It w'as a contest between the 
horse and foot; and he could have no difficulty in predicting how it w'ould 
end—the fiery Celt would be driven from point to point, until he was able to 
meet the Arab upon the very animal which he now despised. 
But not to go so far from home, there was a fact which struck him as he 
was coming to the meeting,—that the annual revenue of the land in Great 
Britain was between ninety-five and a hundred millions. Whether he had ex¬ 
aggerated or understated the amount, they must remember that the half of 
that income was derived from the animals whom they were called upon to pro¬ 
tect, not only from disease but from ignorance and^inhumanity. (^Cheers.^ If his 
statement was right, then this followed—that property to the amount of fifty 
millions per annum was under their charge as medical men. It was not the 
horse alone, but all the other domestic animals, of -whose enormous value, 
perhaps, some gentlemen present were not aware. After these remarks, he 
begged to propose his toast, “ Success to the veterinary students,” and he had 
no doubt that they would obtain it. {Loud cheers.') 
Mr. William Dycer^ medical student, returned thanks. 
Mr. Dick rose to propose a toast, and it afforded him great pleasure to do 
80, because with that toast he would couple the health of a gentleman whom 
he could rank among his pupils, a gentleman who had devoted his life to 
agriculture, and who now conducted the tide of agriculture in Scotland—he 
meant Mr. Stephens. (^Cheers.) When he said, that he was the leader of 
agriculture in Scotland, he need only mention, that he was the editor of the 
“Quarterly Journal of Agriculture” (cheers)., a -work whose influence on 
agriculture was too well known to require any statements of his. It conducted 
not only the science of agriculture in Scotland, but in the world; for where 
shall we find so much attention paid to agriculture as in Scotland ? to what 
quarter of the world does every one first turn for instruction, but to Scotland ? 
where, in spite of an uncongenial soil and climate, such great objects had been 
achieved. Mr. Stephens had devoted his time, and, indeed, his whole life, to 
the advancement of agriculture ; and the many high elogiums which had 
been paid to the work was sufficient to shew its merits. He begged, there¬ 
fore, to propose “ Mr. Stephens and the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.” 
(Cheers.) 
Mr. Stephens returned thanks for the honor which had been done him, the 
more particularly as it was altogether unexpected on his part. As his name 
had been associated with the Journal, it in some degree relieved him of the 
embarrassment of personal feeling. He felt gratified at the high estimation in 
which the work was held in the country, as well as abroad; at the same time 
it had not that extensive influence which he could wush it to possess, the more 
especially when he considered that the -v\’ork was under the illustrious patron¬ 
age of the Highland Society of Scotland. ( Cheers.) 
As he was on his legs, perhaps they would permit him to give one toast— 
success to a sister Institution lately established in England upon something 
of the same constitution with the Highland Society—he meant “ The Royal 
Agricultural Society of England.” (Cheers.) He thought this was an honour 
they were entitled to at the hands of such an assemblage as the present; par¬ 
ticularly when they remembered that they were also, in some degree, con¬ 
nected with the Veterinary College of London. They had granted, he be¬ 
lieved, £200 a-year for the endowment of a Professor who should devote his. 
