INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
take care, however, that we do not arrest its progress ; it is 
our duty, both individually and collectively, to bring to hear 
all the untiring industry, intelligence, and experience we pos¬ 
sess, on the continuous nurture and cultivation of this tree, 
rather than by any selfish conceit to permit ourselves to rest 
in the good labour, and allow it to dwindle away and die in the 
forest of knowledge which is every where rapidly growing up 
around it. Recollect that there is no such thing as standing 
still in knowledge; indeed, it seems to be a law of nature 
that in every thing there must be either progression or retro¬ 
gression. I say, therefore, as regards veterinary science, it is 
our especial province so to exert ourselves as to ensure its 
onward progress. 
The Governors of the College have no other object in view 
than the advancement of the profession; and their greatest 
anxiety is, so to conduct the affairs of this Institution as to en¬ 
sure the confidence and good-will of thq body politic and 
corporate. 
Anatomy, gentlemen, claims the first notice, and, if I may 
use the expression, breaks the ground of all medical science; 
in fact, without it the application of medicine and surgery, 
both to man and the lower animals, would be unworthy of 
the name of Science. Were it not for the exploration of the 
body by dissection, the existence of even the great organs 
within would be unknown. We should know that a horse 
had a skin, and certain other external organs; but that would 
be all. We should riot be aware of the existence of the heart, 
or the lungs, the liver, the brain, the intestines, &c.; and the 
diseases specifically affecting these parts would only be appa¬ 
rent to us as so many occult causes of decay, or of death. 
A haphazard remedy might cure in such a case; but it is 
evident that you are more likely to cure, w hen by anatomical 
and physiological knowledge you are enabled to form a correct 
estimate of the seat and nature of a disease; and, by com¬ 
parative reasoning, experience thus obtained will materially 
assist you in combating similar symptoms in future cases. 
Therefore, I say, a knowledge of anatomy is the essential 
requisite of a persistently successful treatment of curable dis¬ 
eases. Reasoning onwards from this, the more profound our 
anatomical knowledge is, the more the body of our patient is 
rendered transparent in the almost spiritual light of science; 
the more clearly and intimately can we tell what the disease 
with wririch he may be afflicted is, and thereby place ourselves 
upon the correct path of treatment. The human mind, when it 
has a piece of definite knowledge presented to it, seems lighted 
up from that path in many directions; and definiteness of know r - 
