704 
INAUGURAL A DDE,ESS. 
urge their study as of equal importance with the study of 
morbid states, not superior. 
Neither subject must be pursued to the exclusion of the 
other. In the hospital every facility will be afforded you for 
obtaining a practical acquaintance with disease, while the 
theoretical knowledge will be taught from this chair. As the 
dissecting-room is the place for the just study of anatomy, 
so is the hospital for the study of disease. Here you will 
have whatever help my fellow-professors and myself can give 
you in distinguishing the nature and observing the treatment 
of maladies ; and you would do well to remember that time 
and opportunity now wasted can never be recalled. When 
you leave this College it will be for the active duties of 
your profession—duties which are often incompatible with, 
or destroy that persistent attention which is requisite to 
master the rudiments of pathology. I would earnestly entreat 
you, then, for your own sake, for the sake of your professors, 
and for the sake of the College, whose reputation is now 
involved in your success, to let no imputation of neglect rest 
upon you. 
And now, gentlemen, in bringing these observations to a 
conclusion, I would express a hope that I may, in some 
measure, have conveyed to you the impression that the 
greatest personal good and practical benefit are concomitants 
of the highest professional excellence, and that this is to be 
sought or obtained only by striving at the loftiest aims of the 
veterinary art. I might have pointed out to those who would 
seek the highest scientific honours, the vast field open to 
them in comparative anatomy, physiology, and pathology, 
but I have preferred to keep to that aspect which is most 
consistent w T ith the everyday life and work of the profession. 
Let me note here an additional word or two of advice and 
caution, touching upon this latter object. The public justly 
look to the veterinary practitioner for the chief education of 
those who have the care of our domesticated animals in habits 
of humanity. From thoughtlessness, ignorance, and brutality, 
too often the ordinary treatment of these animals is of the 
most cruel description. It is for us, by example and precept, 
to take every opportunity of inculcating humane treatment. 
Nothing can be more certain than, that we best consult 
the commercial value of every kind of domesticated animal 
by such treatment. But a more noble reflection than this 
ought to influence us. Has it not been said by the Incar¬ 
nate that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without 
the Divine permission? There is a moral responsibility 
involved in the care of animals which is too frequently for- 
