ANNUAL DINNER. 
377 
very kind towards the examiners. I feel I have a very 
arduous duty to perform, because I have to return thanks 
for men who occupy a deservedly prominent position in this 
country. On my left I see an anatomist and physiologist, 
who is acknowledged to be second to none in Europe. On 
my right is a gentleman who is at the head of the public 
service, and most worthily occupies that office. Then I see 
two gentlemen, one in practice in London and the other in 
the country, and they are second to no two men in their 
profession. It is my arduous duty to return 'thanks for 
them ; but I look to your good nature to ask you to allow 
me shortly but sincerely to thank you for each and for all. 
(Cheers.) But I have now' another duty to perform. Our 
duty as examiners is entirely a secondary one. Unless you 
had very able teachers at your colleges there would be very 
little use in your examiners. We can judge of the quality 
of the teaching in your school by ^ome of the men wffio 
come before us; and we can say that in anatomy and phy¬ 
siology they answ'er us as w'ell as any men wffio go to the 
College of Physicians or the College of Surgeons. (Hear, 
hear.) I have now to propose to you the health of your 
President. (Cheers.) I cannot, in speaking of him as 
President, forget that he is one of the distinguished teachers 
of your school. He is a man, too, w'ho has occupied latel}^ 
a very prominent position in the public service, and most 
creditably to himself. But to-day his claim upon us is of a 
different kind. We certainly ow-e a great part of the life 
that has existed amongst us this evening, and the comfort 
we have enjoyed, to the constant exertions wffiich he has 
made during the evening. I ask you very cordially to join 
wdth me in drinking the health of your President. 
The toast having been drunk. 
The President said—I can assure you, gentlemen, I feel ex¬ 
ceedingly obliged to you for the kind manner in wffiich you 
have responded to this toast. I do not know^ that, as President 
of the College of Veterinary Surgeons, I deserve much at your 
hands. All I can say is, that during my year of office I 
have endeavoured to do the best I could to fulfil the duties 
of the station in which you have done me the honour to 
place me. If I have failed, it has been rather from want of 
ability than from w^ant of wdll to perform the task. I confess 
I look rather humbly upon my own exertions, and feel that 
I have not done so much as I ought to have done. Never¬ 
theless, I hope I have been actuated by proper motives. 
When I w'ent to the College as one of its teachers, I became 
an instructor in a branch of science which at that time w as 
