644 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
racked with pain of the acutest kind; the medical attendant, 
as a matter of humanity, would give such agents as would 
afford relief, and also tend to lengthen life, although per¬ 
haps only for a short time. But with us, as veterinary sur¬ 
geons, whenever we consider a case decidedly incurable, we 
should at once advise the owner to have the animal destroyed. 
It would be an imposition to put him to unnecessary expense, 
and a piece of cruelty to the animal itself. 
Demonstrations will be given daily in the dissecting-room. 
Here you will be able to acquire a knowledge of descriptive 
anatomy, which, with general or structural anatomy, forms 
as before stated the basis of your professional knowledge. By 
dissecting parts over and over again, you may become, as I 
have said, as familiar with the different organs as you are 
with the furniture in your room. To many this division 
of study may be at first extremely unpleasant and very 
irksome, but after a time they will feel a deep interest in 
the pursuit. When they come to unravel the intricacies of 
the animal frame, and see how beautifully every part is 
adapted to an end, and how each harmonises with the other, 
and to understand that a thorough knowledge of every part 
is important to a knowledge of physiology, they will become 
enthusiastic in the science. 
I would advise the junior students to devote what time they 
can spare from the lectures, firstly to the study of Osteology, 
which means a knowledge of the bones, both as regards their 
number, form, physical properties, and chemical composition, 
and having obtained a tolerable idea of the skeleton, next 
turn their attention to Myology, or the study of the muscles, 
the active agents in progression, respiration, and various 
other functions; and afterwards dissect the other organs 
■which go to make up the entire animal body. 
My experience in this department is somewhat extensive, 
for I believe, from the period I first entered this institution 
up to about five years ago, I occupied the greater part of 
every session in the dissecting-room ; and I have always 
found that those pupils who spent the largest portion of their 
time there, either in dissecting or looking on, were, as a rule, 
the most proficient, not only in anatomy, but in every other 
division of their studies. It is almost impossible to remain in 
such a locality for any length of time without learning some¬ 
thing worth storing up. Turn your eyes which way you will, 
jmu see organs exposed to view, while your ear will be assailed 
by the demonstrator’s explanations of parts dissected, or in in¬ 
forming the young beginner how he ought to proceed; or you 
