INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
635 
learn; he loses no opportunity, but watches the cases from 
clay to day, and, leaving out nothing which experience can 
teach him, carries away a bright copy of it deeply engrafted 
on his mind; useful for his future career in life. 
I have spoken of “the veterinary art” as meaning “the 
practice of your profession.” Let me now say a few words on 
veterinary science, which is the support of art. 
Scientific knowledge makes practice sound. The differ¬ 
ence between the uneducated farrier and the veterinary 
surgeon is that the former has, it is true, +o a certain extent 
the art, but it is unsupported by science, and the practice of the 
art under such circumstances must indeed be both poor and 
dangerous; while the latter, by combining science with art, is 
enabled to pursue his practice with that confidence and suc¬ 
cess which cannot fail to ensure to him the respect and sup¬ 
port of all who may stand in need of his professional services. 
Our profession, practised as a science, in this country, scarcely 
dates back three fourths of a centurv, which is but a short 
period for the growth and full development of any science. It 
may be said to have blossomed forth from agriculture, with 
which it is so intimately connected, and forms so useful an 
offset. 
In the year 1791, several noblemen and gentlemen, mem¬ 
bers of an agricultural society, called the Odiham Society, 
having the example set them by our continental neighbours, 
who had already established several veterinary schools, sub¬ 
scribed a fund, formed themselves into a governing body, 
and founded the Loyal Veterinary College. I, however, am 
not about to trace the history and progress of this institution, 
as such has been already recorded; suffice it to say that up 
to the time of its establishment the sanitary condition of 
our domesticated animals was placed under the charge of 
grooms and charlatans, who had nothing to recommend them 
but their boasted experience and the recipes handed down 
to them by their forefathers. 
The state of things now, however, is far different, and if 
we compare the present with those times, although we have 
not yet reached that position in the estimation of the public 
which we have a light to aspire to, and which it is my belief 
we are destined to attain, we nevertheless have great cause 
for self-gratulation. It may be truly said that the incipient 
blossom of the veterinary profession has ripened into rich 
fruit, which has scattered its seed, and which, in this our 
day, has grown up into a stately tree of Science, modestly 
rearing its head by the side of, and intertwining its branches 
with, most of the kindred sciences of the age. We must 
