5 2 ° 
S. J. J. HARGER. 
generous assistance and faithful performance of the work which 
we have carefully laid out as our course of study. You are men 
who have had the advantage of higher education, and the ex¬ 
perience of years of practice, such as professors should have. 
May your teachings be fruitful. 
To you, gentlemen, our first class of students, numbering 
sixteen to-day, I bid a hearty welcome. You have passed a 
rigid entrance examination, proving that you are capable to 
study, and intelligent enough to follow our lectures with satis¬ 
faction and good results ; that you have a sufficient degree of 
culture to carry yourselves as gentlemen and so preserve the 
good reputation which this new college bears. 
Let us all then, the faculty and students, work together 
earnestly and harmoniously, and let us join hearts and brains to 
make this an institution from which true knowledge may flow. 
In the name of the founder of this college, I herewith declare 
it open to all worthy young men who may seek the knowledge 
which we can give. 
NEUREGTOMY AS A PRAGTIGAL OPERATION. 
By Prof. S. J. J. Harger, of the University of Pennsylvania. 
In veterinary surgery, we find a vast field which is still un¬ 
explored. We find, among the list of major surgical operations 
many which we perform, as it were, empirically, without inquir¬ 
ing what the actual results in a large number of cases are or 
what percentage are successful. One of these is neurectomy. 
The term neurotomy is generally misapplied. It simply means a 
section of the nerve, whilst the word neurectomy , which is the 
correct one, means a resection of a portion of the nerve trunk, 
as it is ordinarily practiced. I have always been an advocate 
of this operation, but not unjustly so, and have always advocated 
it without reservation whenever the indications called for it ; in 
fact, so much so, as to cause sometimes a smile of amusing com¬ 
ment from some of my professional friends whenever I did so. I 
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