THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL.XLY 
No. 539. 
NOVEMBER, 1872. 
Fourth Series. 
No. 215. 
Communications and Cases. 
OPENING OF THE WINTER SESSION AT THE 
ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE, OCTOBER 
1st, 1872. 
Sir James Tyler, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
Professor Brown —There are two words, sir, in very com¬ 
mon use in our profession, which ought to be connected very 
closely in meaning and intention, but which somehow have 
got to be quite antagonistic—practice and science. In the 
popular idea, practice means manual dexterity, power to do 
whatever rough work one happens to meet with in the world. 
Science, in the same view, refers to that higher kind of 
knowledge which the student acquires in his library, his 
laboratory, or his museum, and the world has become accus¬ 
tomed to the idea of disassociating the man of science from 
the man of practice, holding that the one who knows most 
is commonly capable of doing the least. The subject is an 
old one of controversy in our profession, and if I select it for 
my theme this morning it is under a strong conviction that 
a needless difficulty has been created, which in the interests 
of the student and the teacher should be removed. 
Not to encumber ourselves with any needless difficulty, 
let us at once decide what we always mean by a “ practical 55 
man, and what always by a “ scientific ” man; and if I de¬ 
lineate these two pictures for you, let me have the credit of 
giving the most favorable representation of each. 
The “practical” man, as you meet with him in your daily 
course, is the man of tact and experience, the man who is 
capable of dealing with the emergencies which arise without 
xlv. 53 
