792 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
state of the secretions at the time you exhibit those agents 
renders either one or the other necessary ? 
If I suggest to you that as members of a liberal profession 
you are bound to avail yourselves of all modern appliances 
for carrying on investigations, I presume I shall be doing 
no more than commends itself at once to your sympathies. 
That the veterinary surgeon of the day should neglect 
the use of the thermometer, which every surgeon carries 
in his pocket; that he should be incapable of using the 
microscope, which you find in the study of every medical 
man, is a simple reflection upon the intelligence of the 
whole profession. It is an error which it is high time 
should be repaired, and until it is repaired you may rest 
assured the public will have no reliance at all upon our 
conclusions when any difficult subject of investigation is 
broughtmnder our notice. It occurs to me perpetually in my 
journeyings through the country that people complain, not 
that veterinarians are unpractical—I never hear that—as 
far as my own observation extends, there are no more 
practical veterinary surgeons in Europe than there are in 
our own country. I am compelled to say that there are 
more scientific veterinarians on the Continent, and it is my 
hope, it is the hope of every one connected with this and 
other institutions of the like kind, that we may be enabled 
to give our students a foundation of true science, and leave 
them then safely, as we shall be enabled to leave them, to 
work their way straight through the world. 
In the steady pursuit of knowledge, then, you may 
usefully occupy every hour of the day, and so much of the 
night as you can well spare from the needful time of 
repose. As to your periods of relaxation, I say nothing, more, 
at least than is necessary to warn you that all the popular 
amusements of the day are hopelessly enervating in their 
effects upon the intellect. Even the very mild dissipation of 
reading novels is distinctly opposed to anything like serious 
study. The time which you have here is short enough in all 
conscience, and if you devote every moment of it to the 
acquirement of science, you may depend upon it you will 
never afterwards regret that you did not give up a certain 
space of it to your amusements. There is enough work, you 
may depend upon it, to be done—I do not mean for the mere 
purpose of obtaining your diplomas, because I look upon 
that achievement as a very insignificant result of your 
studies here; it is something that is necessary for you, 
and something which you will easily obtain if you 
merely take the trouble to work for it. But I wish to 
