634 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
engraven on the memory, and probably surpass in import¬ 
ance those of many a preceding day of more stirring events. 
Attention and curiosity are awake to the beginning of a 
new career, and the feelings are warm and impressible to the 
subject. Permit me then to take advantage of this favor¬ 
able opportunity, to strike while the iron is hot, to arm 
your curiosity with fresh means of improvement, and 
fortify your good resolves from my experience, and by my 
friendly counsel. Recollect that you are the depositories of 
the hopes of a whole profession, and that each of you places 
your teachers under a responsibility, so far as in them lies, 
to introduce you into the organization of that circle whose 
parts you are to constitute; whose usefulness you are to 
amplify; and whose humanity, spirit, and science you are, 
to the best of your ability, to cultivate and extend. Bear in 
mind that your profession stands around you, to watch and 
to hail the bright resolves with which you enter upon your 
first day’s duty; and last, not least, the united and tender 
hopes of your families and your homes—fathers, mothers, 
brothers, and sisters—have reached here before you, and 
hover around you as a spiritual protective shield against 
the evil temptations of this vast metropolis. Are you not 
then surrounded by an atmosphere, which tends with all 
its force to incite you to be consistent with the excellence 
of your calling, and with the hopes of a professional genera¬ 
tion, which, though passing away in itself, looks forward to 
be immortalised in von and those who are to come after vou? 
•J 
You are here, gentlemen, to learn the veterinary art, and the 
sciences on which it reposes. The practice of your profession 
is what may be termed the “ veterinary art and of this you 
must lay the foundation by an unwearied observation of the 
practice of the College. Doubtless many of you have already 
had some experience in practice; you will, however, within 
these walls, enjoy frequent opportunities of extending your 
knowledge in this department of your professional study. 
You will be able to profit by the remarks and practice of 
your professors; and by taking notes, and comparing them 
among yourselves, of the cases under treatment in the In¬ 
firmary. By participating also with your teachers in their 
feelings of responsibility as to the well-doing of the pa¬ 
tients, you will be materially benefited. Let me entreat you 
diligently to cultivate that faculty of observation with 
which you are all endowed; and, as I have on a former 
occasion remarked, it is important for this purpose that you 
are punctual in your attendance here. A punctual pupil gives, 
as I have said before, the first evidence of a determination to 
