4o2 
THE FIRST DISTRIBUTION OF UNIVERSITY PRIZES 
AND HONOURS TO VETERINARY STUDENTS. 
On Monday, the 22d ultimo, the first public distribution of 
medals and certificates of merit, granted by a University to ve¬ 
terinary students, took place at the University of London. To 
him who had laboured for three long years to bring about this 
desired event, thus far to be enabled to vindicate the honour of 
the art he professed to teach—and, however humble might be 
the first exhibition, to stamp a new character on veterinary 
science, and to give new respectability to veterinary practi¬ 
tioners,—to him, I say, this was a gratifying day. 
The weather was as bad as it could w ell be, and not more than 
eighty persons were present. The Dean of the Faculty of Medi¬ 
cine, Dr. A. T. Thomson, presided ; and he was supported by 
Drs. Blair, Bostock, Carswell, Copland, Ferguson, and Ritchie, 
and Messrs. Andrews, Cocke, Key, Millington, Propert, Vigors, 
and White : several veterinary friends of the Lecturer were likewise 
there, among whom were Messrs. Field, King, Mavor, and others. 
Dr. Thomson commenced the business of the day by a rapid 
but accurate and eloquent survey of the progress of veterinary 
science. He spoke of it in the olden time, when Hippocrates 
wrote on it, and practised it too ; he referred to the later ages of the 
Roman empire, when the horse as well as his owner experienced 
the medical care of the physician. He spoke of its emerging 
from the darkness of the middle ages, when many strange 
epizootics were sweeping away the cattle in almost every part 
of Europe; and he traced it to the present day—doing full jus¬ 
tice to its claims, as connected with the health of the brute, and 
affording many a happy illustration of the grand principles of 
physiology and the treatment of disease. He spoke of it as an 
art far too much undervalued; and he concluded by hinting at 
the pleasure he experienced at presiding at this first distribution 
of honours in the University of London. 
Mr. Youatt, who had been brought from a sick bed, and who 
was carried thither again as soon as the ceremony was over, and 
who was little fitted to discharge the arduous duties of the day, 
then rose. 
In his own name, and in the name of his class and his pro¬ 
fession, he thanked the chairman for the justice he had done to 
an art, indeed “ too much undervalued,” and which required 
only room and scope enough in order to vindicate its claims to 
public estimation. A few exhibitions like that of to-day, a few 
acknowledgments like this from men ranking high in medical 
and general scienee, and veterinary practitioners would have this 
