THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXXIV. 
No. 407. 
NOVEMBER, 1861 . 
Fourth Series. 
No. 83. 
Communications and Cases, 
OPENING OF THE SESSION AT THE ROYAL 
VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY ASSISTANT-PROEESSOR 
VARNELL. 
Gentlemen, —In accordance with established custom, 
we meet to-day to inaugurate another sessional course of 
instruction in the several departments of veterinary medicine. 
I have been deputed on this occasion to deliver the usual 
introductory address, and although I willingly accept the 
honour, I nevertheless doubt my power to do full justice to 
a subject of so much importance, both to the teacher and the 
taught. 
Your teachers meet together as friends and colleagues, to 
devote their time and energies in carrying out the object 
intrusted to their care, viz., the education of the rising vete¬ 
rinary surgeon and the genial influence of so many familiar 
faces seems to create new inducements for increased exertions 
to fulfil that important trust. The student also, especially 
him who for the first time has entered upon the threshold 
of the profession, feels his heart beat with a hope that he 
may one day excel in that which he has undertaken, and in 
due time, by diligence and well-doing, may become a distin¬ 
guished member of his profession. 
When I reflect on the position of the junior students, I 
feel that I cannot do better than devote some portion of the 
time usually allotted to the delivery of this address in giving 
them an insight into the profession they have selected. There 
are many who now occupy the benches of this theatre who 
have but a very dim idea of the things relating to their future 
studies or pursuits; experience of what lies before them they 
xxxiv. 47 
