INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 791 
they will never escape from your memories as long as you 
live. 
Then you will be required, besides attending lectures and. 
reading for the purpose of actually acquiring knowledge, and 
not merely for the sake of saying that you have read—you 
will be required to devote a considerable portion of your time 
to the dissecting room and laboratory. The dissections which 
you will be required to carry on, I have already told you, will 
include every part of the animal body. Step by step you 
proceed, till you have rendered yourself familiar with every 
portion, and have so rendered yourself familiar that there 
will be no chance of its ever being an effort of memory to 
recall what you have learnt. 
It is rather remarkable to hear a veterinary surgeon say 
that he acquired a great deal at his college which he has 
now forgotten, simply because he found it of no use to him. 
I assure you that the only regret I ever experience myself is 
that I have forgotten a good many things which I am con¬ 
stantly finding would be of a great deal of use to me, and it 
takes a considerable portion of my time to look back and get 
as much of my previous knowledge for present use as I 
possibly can. The idea of the knowledge of anatomy and 
physiology ever being useless to a man who attempts to treat 
the animal body in a diseased condition, when he knows full 
well that not the smallest injury can occur but it must 
implicate some important structure ! How is it possible that 
he can give a deliberate opinion as to the probable conse¬ 
quences of that injury unless he knows exactly the origin, 
course, attachments, and function, and the minute structure 
of the tissue so injured? Anatomy and physiology are sub¬ 
jects which you can never afford to let slip out of your grasp. 
I may say the same thing of all the other subjects, but 
especially in reference to these; a correct knowledge of the 
elements of the machine must be acquired before you 
can rationally attempt to put it in repair when it is out of 
order. 
The time which you will spend in the dissecting-room, 
then, will be well employed. You must give very close 
attention to this part of your studies if you ever hope to 
become clever practitioners. Your work in the laboratory, I 
assure you, will be equally productive of results. There is 
nothing more unfortunate than to be unable to make a 
simple examination of the fluids or solids of the animal body, 
to ascertain the reactions of their secretions ; and can you 
conceive any act more completely absurd than the prescrip¬ 
tion of an acid or an alkali without knowing whether the 
