G54 
INTRODUCTORY LFXTURE. 
imperative, to persons qualifying themselves for all the more 
important callings which men of liberal education follow. 
Wh}q even our old universities of Oxford and Cambridge have 
of late years acknowledged the importance of these subjects. 
Lest I should be misunderstood, I would beg to state that I do 
not for a moment mean you to infer from my remarks that 
I consider it necessary you should endeavour to obtain a 
profound knowledge of the preliminary scientific subjects I 
have named, or that you are ever to neglect opportunities of 
gaining practical experience of your profession, in order that 
you may become learned in the scientific or theoretic foun¬ 
dation upon which it is based; but 1 do mean to say that the 
veterinary surgeon who has received the general and scientific 
education I consider he ought to receive, will have the oppor¬ 
tunity of gaining a more thorough knowledge of his art, will 
exercise his calling with much greater skill, confidence, and 
success, and will be much more likely to contribute to the 
advancement of his profession, than he who possesses it not. 
You must know, gentlemen, that I look forward with con¬ 
siderable hope to the day when the existence of a great 
anomaly in which you are concerned will cease—I mean when 
the schools of human medicine will no longer enjoy the 
enviable honour of being the sole nurseries, as one may call 
them, of our Owens, our Grays, our Grants, our Queketts, 
our Marshall Halls, our Erown-Sequards, our Huxleys, and 
other illustrious working naturalists, comparative anatomists^ 
and physiologists. Why should not our schools of com¬ 
parative medicine send forth such' men ? 
Speaking of science in relation to veterinary medicine, 
naturally induees me to expatiate upon the advantages w'hich 
you are to derive from the study of that branch of it which, 
in conjunction with materia mcdica, 1 have the pleasure of 
teaching in this institution. Gentlemen, I refer to chemistry,of 
which the great Sir Humphrey Davy has truly said, ^^its begin¬ 
ning is pleasure, its progress knowledge, and its objects truth 
and utilityMost, if not all, of my audience are probably 
aware that chemistry is the offspring of alchemy—a pursuit 
which is generally considered to have originated centuries 
ago with the Arabians—a pursuit, also, wliich had for its 
main object the discovery of the philosopher's stone. This 
material was to enable its owner to acquire unlimited wealth, 
by turning the baser, or common metals, into gold. The 
alchemist likewise aimed at the discovery of the elixir vitce —a 
preparation supposed to have the priceless quality of con¬ 
ferring on those who partook of it the power of prolonging 
their lives to any extent, and of enjoying all the pleasures 
