668 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
“If there be any old pupil/’ he adds, “who now hears 
me, and whose conscience accuses him of deficiencies in 
these respects, let him henceforth turn over a new leaf; let 
him determine to be honest to his time; let the opening of 
this new session be to him the opening of a new mind and a 
new course of action. It is not too late for amendment. 
The vigorous decision to do better will go far to enable him 
to make double use of his time, and to accumulate useful 
information with double rapidity.” 
Having now explained the several parts taken by my 
colleagues in conducting your studies, and also given their 
opinions, as well as my own, as to the share you should take 
in order to secure success, I will proceed to add a few 
observations on my own section. 
You are fully aware that on me devolves the task of 
instructing you in the anatomy, physiology, and pathology 
of all domesticated animals, save the horse. A wide field is 
this, and one I could have wished had been brought under 
the culture of a more able tiller than myself, who would not 
have failed, by good husbandry, to have produced an 
abundant harvest. However, I am here to do my duty 
according to the best of my abilities; and self-justice requires 
me to add, that although an abler instructor might have been 
found, not one more willing could have been. The importance 
of this branch of veterinary science was far too long in being 
acknowledged, but at length the time arrived, and for some 
few years it has held its proper position within this seminary. 
We would even venture to hope that the beneficial effects 
of our exertions have reached the country; if so, we would 
view it not as a reward, but as a stimulus to renewed labour. 
This branch of veterinary science is one that must continue 
to rise year by year in public estimation, and it cannot, 
therefore, fail to prove advantageous to those who practise 
it. Cattle and sheep are every day becoming of more worth 
to the agriculturist, not only as animals of greater money 
value, from an improvement in their breed, but because they 
enable him to raise, by augmenting their number on his farm, 
a far greater amount of food of all kinds for the people. 
The abolition of all restrictive duties between country and 
country; the removal by man of that which cramps the actions, 
and neutralises the exertions, and destroys the spirit of inde¬ 
pendence of his fellow-man, must ever prove a powerful means, 
in the British Isles, among other things, for a strict attention 
to be given to the improvement of our native cattle and 
sheep. Nay, not only will they be improved in quality and 
aptitude to fatten, but their numbers will be enormously 
