90 OPENING OF THE MELBOURNE VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
a patient has to say about the complaint from which he suffers. 
I heartily congratulate those of you who have joined these classes 
with a view of qualifying as veterinary surgeons. To those who 
have a love and regard for the lower animals there can be no more 
congenial occupation than to attend them in their sufferings, and, 
being directed by their mute appeals to a correct understanding 
of their wants, to be able to alleviate their pain and restore 
them to health and usefulness. It has often'been said that ani¬ 
mals are not worth doctoring in this colony, and that it is cheaper 
to destroy them and replace them by others. The records of the 
hospital in connection with this institution show, to the credit of 
owners, that it is not the money value of a horse or other animal 
alone that induces them to place it under professional treatment. 
A wealthy man may lose a horse and think little or nothing about 
his loss, but the man whose horse has been earning him his living 
perhaps for years, does not allow it to suffer and die without mak¬ 
ing an effort to have it restored to health, and in the majority of 
cases he is rewarded for his trouble. While we are compelled to 
admit that up to the present veterinary science has made but little 
progress in Australia, there is every reason to believe that there 
is a much brighter prospect in the future. We have to congratu¬ 
late ourselves on the improved status given to the profession by 
the Veterinary Surgeons Act of 1887. The public will now be 
able to judge us on our merits as veterinary surgeons, and no long¬ 
er have their opinions influenced by the conduct and abilities of a 
number of men practising under assumed titles. The four years 
study which the Act prescribes before you will be eligible for 
your final examination, which is a longer period than that enforced 
in the colleges of Great Britain, should be a sufficient guarantee 
that the status of the profession will not suffer at your hands if 
you only avail yourselves of the opportunities that will be given 
you of gaining both theoretical and practical knowledge. During 
the whole of the period you will have the benefit of seeing an ex¬ 
tensive hospital practice which in number and variety of cases is 
equal to that afforded by any of the British veterinary schools. 
In theory your attention will be first directed to what may be 
termed your preparatory studies. On three mornings in each 
