184 YORKSHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
able to make for the honour ) 7 ou have conferred. I remember, 
when a student at the Iloyal Veterinary College, the sub¬ 
secretaryship of the Veterinary Medical Association held 
there was filled by me, and some of j f ou may have remem¬ 
bered my being in that office, and therefore may have thought 
me not altogether unacquainted with duties hereafter to be 
performed. I feel confident I shall have, during my term of 
office, your united support, which will materially lighten my 
labours, so that instead of the presidentship proving a task, 
it will be “ a labour of love” to me. 
I should not be doing my duty did I not mention the 
subject of our fees. I think it is a great pity v T e have not 
more uniformity here. Some of the members of the profes¬ 
sion charge much too low, which has an injurious effect upon 
the profession. We ought to let our conduct, dress, and 
address always be such as become gentlemen. We ought 
never to adopt the style of the groom or stableman, and far 
less his general habits. They may be vulgarly called “ flash,” 
but they are unprofessional, and derogatory to our vocation. 
I am aware it is policy, and also necessary, to be on good 
terms with these persons; but it is a great mistake to sup¬ 
pose there is any necessity for undue familiarity with them. 
We should rather be anxious to gain both the ear and the 
confidence of our employers. Believe me, I am only actuated 
by a strong desire that our profession should take a higher 
standing than it does in making these remarks. 
Further, we must not let any petty animosities divide us; 
on the contrary, we must co-operate for the sake of humanity 
and science, of which veterinary science presents so admi¬ 
rable a field, and especially when so much of it remains 
uncultivated. “ There is no royal road to knowledge.” The 
hill is often steep and difficult, and like travellers in a moun¬ 
tainous country, when they have laboured hard and reached 
one ridge, and think it is the last, they look around, and see 
others still higher to be ascended. These, too, we must 
mount, for each presents some new prospect from its summit. 
Difficulties often serve to awaken new energies, and call 
forth latent pow r ers. To yield at the onset will prove we are 
cowards; to hesitate is to be beaten; while to advance is to 
gain the victory. Fortunes, I admit, are seldom or slowly 
made in our profession; the wherewithal comes in tardily. 
The professions generally are not like commercial specula¬ 
tions. Nevertheless, by probity and persevering industry, 
pecuniary success is certain in the long run. We shall heed 
not imaginary lions in the pathway of knowledge, nor 
become captives to Giant Despair, although “the race is 
