536 
TESTIMONIAL TO PROFESSOR MORTON. 
Professor Spooner again rose, and said—Gentlemen, I feel that a 
very high privilege has been granted me in being permitted to call your 
attention to a gentleman who is now amongst us, and who, I am happy 
to say, does us the honour of presiding over us. (Cheers.) When I 
request you to join me in drinking the health of our chairman, Mr. 
Wilkinson, I am sure you will all do so with the utmost feelings of 
cordiality and sincerity. Mr. Wilkinson is the principal veterinary 
surgeon in the army. He is also the President of the Royal College of 
Veterinary Surgeons. But irrespective of these high positions which 
that gentleman has the honour to fill, he holds another position which is 
very high—he holds the position of being appreciated by us all as a man 
most worthy of our esteem. (Hear, hear.) I have had the honour of 
his acquaintance now for many years. I am sorry to say I cannot number 
so many years of his acquaintance as my friend on my left, but I have 
known him for a long period, and the longer I have known him the 
higher has been my esteem for him. These are not sentiments peculiar 
to myself, but they are sentiments which, X am quite sure, pervade the 
bosoms of all the gentlemen present, and there are many of you who have 
been in intimate and frequent association with him. Mr. Wilkinson has 
presided over the meeting with that degree of urbanity and ability which 
peculiarly belong to him. We are all of us very much indebted to him 
for the kind manner in which he has come forward, and I am sure that 
when we take into consideration the high position he occupies amongst 
us, and bear in mind the obligations we are under to him for his exertions 
here to-day, we shall all of us most cordially join in drinking his very 
good health. 
The toast having been duly honoured, 
The Chairman, in reply, said—Gentlemen, adequately to respond to 
the eloquent, friendly, and kind manner in which my friend Professor 
Spooner has proposed my health is beyond my power. I had no idea 
when I came here that I should be in the painful but pleasurable posi¬ 
tion in which I now stand—for it must be a pleasure to any one to find 
that he is appreciated by his professional brethren. It has been my en¬ 
deavour, from the time when I entered the Royal Veterinary College, to 
take the position which has been so properly described by the worthy 
professor in his speech as the desideratum of the veterinary profession ; 
that is, a position which may be considered as equal to that of any other, 
either in the profession or out of the profession. There are gentlemen 
here, who are almost in daily intercourse with me, who would tell you, if 
they had the opportunity, how constant my endeavour is to inculcate into 
the minds of young men with whom I have to deal—those who enter the 
army in our profession—how absolutely necessary it is that they should be 
gentlemen. A man may be a very clever veterinary surgeon, and yet he 
may not have those qualities which fit him for that position in the army. 
I am particularly pleased to say that the efforts which have been made, 
with the assistance of my kind friends at the College, to select for the 
army such persons as should be properly placed there, have been attended 
with the greatest success. I can only, in conclusion, say that lam much 
obliged to my friend Professor Spooner for the kind manner in which he has 
proposed my health, and to you for the manner in which you have received 
it. I see present a great many persons whom I knew in early youth, and 
have not seen for many years, and it reminds me of what the poet says : 
“And doth not a meeting like this make amends 
For all the long years I’ve been wandering away 
To see thus around me my youth’s early friends, 
As blithe and as gay as in that happy day.” 
