INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
621 
matter from a knowledge of the thing itself; and hence, as 
teachers, we one and all feel our deficiency with respect to 
the details of the science of botany to be too great to presume 
to offer instructions thereon. An alteration of the curriculum 
of study can alone effect this, and such necessarily involves 
other changes, some of which are not certainly desirable; at 
least in the present state of our institution. 
I pass on to speak of pathology, the science which em¬ 
braces the nature, causes, and effects of disease, and to which 
it may be said all the other branches of medicine converge. 
In studying pathology w T e note the phenomena that the func¬ 
tions of the body present when diverted from their usual 
course by the intervention of disturbing causes, and examine 
the alterations of structure which accompany such deviations 
from the correct standard. From the ever-varying causes 
of disease, pathology may be said to be constantly being 
learned, but never fully acquired; and hence the value of 
experience, which time alone can give, in deciding on the 
nature of doubtful or difficult cases. The steps by which 
you are to begin the ascent to this temple of fame are 
securely laid, and none other will serve to conduct you 
safely thither. 
The sciences which have been named are indispensable 
aids for you to become veterinary surgeons. It is true 
that in studying them you are not to be anatomists, physi¬ 
ologists, or chemists, simply as such; but, to be what you 
desire to be, you must first be all these in degree. “ With¬ 
out a scientific knowledge of the principles and laws which 
preside over the natural operations of the living body, you 
cannot be said to understand, even vaguely, the nature of the 
derangements of disease ; and without a scientific insight 
into morbid conditions it will be impossible to adapt your 
treatment skilfully to the varieties which they manifest, or to 
be other than the slaves of empirical rules, blindly applying 
the same remedies under circumstances wholly different, and. 
constantly at a loss when new phenomena unexpectedly pre¬ 
sent themselves.”* You need scarcely to be told that your 
success in after-life will mainly depend on the practical 
results that arise from your skill in the treatment of disease. 
Reason, as one of the mental faculties, should guide your 
proceedings; for all these rightly cultivated tend to perfec¬ 
tion. It is instinct alone which never changes. Birds build 
their nests and bees their cells now, as they did when they 
were created ; but reason, at however great disadvantage 
from the influence of custom and prejudice, is a principle of 
* Bowman’s ‘ Introductory Lecture,’ 1851. 
82 
XXXII. 
