MR. YOUATTS INTRODUCTORY LECTURE, &C. 133 
have never been shod by any method except the side-nailing*, 
I have had the satisfaction of observing* one circumstance, which 
certainly I did Hatter myself would result from it, which is, the 
capability of the horny sole exfoliating of itself , as in the un¬ 
shod foot, thereby preserving its thinness and flexibility, instead 
of becoming morbidly thick and strong. 
This I conceive is attributable to the unrestrained motion of 
the sole, which the improved shoeing permits of. In throwing 
out these additional hints with respect to the use of the 
drawing knife being superseded in colts' feet, I shall conclude, 
gentlemen, by begging you to remember, that 1 do not pledge 
myself to shew that it ought to be discarded; but 1 have 
hazarded thus much to induce the profession at large to extend 
the inquiry into this interesting subject. 
MR. YOUATTS INTRODUCTORY LECTURE AT THE 
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, Feb. 2, 1831. 
i 
Gentlemen, 
Having obtained permission from the Council to deliver a 
course of veterinary lectures in this University, and being thus 
the first, in the southern parts of the united kingdoms, who has 
had opportunity to unfold the nature and principles of the vete¬ 
rinary art, and to plead the cause of the veterinary profession in 
such an institution, you may suppose that I feel no little pride, 
and much unfeigned anxiety. 1 am not fearful that I may ap¬ 
pear to have directed your attention to a subject unworthy of it, 
but lest I should be found incompetent to the important task 1 
have undertaken. 
However underrated the veterinary profession may yet be in 
the opinion of the public, and even in that of medical men, it 
w ill be my pleasing duty to prove to you, that it is not undeserv¬ 
ing of the honour conferred on it in being permitted to rank in 
a school like this as a legitimate branch of medical and liberal 
education—that it is closely allied to, or rather a part and 
portion of, medical science; and identified with the agricultural 
interests and most valuable resources of the country. 
The object of the veterinary surgeon is precisely that of the 
practitioner of human medicine—to preserve health, to relieve 
disease, to assuage pain, and to prolong life ; and that in beings, 
not indeed possessed of the high intellectual powers of man, but 
endowed w ith all his susceptibility of animal pleasure and pain ; 
with many of his good qualities ; his useful servants; his willing 
slaves; and on whom, oy having taken them from their natural 
