LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 247 
since then we have lost from amongst us Mr. Joseph Gibson, Mr. 
Andrew Howarth, Mr. Samuel Dean, Mr. Gilbert Fulton, Mr. Thomas 
Ball, Mr. Joseph Ball, Mr. Peter Hulme, Mr. Thomas Tennant, Mr. 
Matthew Poett, Mr. Isaac Worthington, Mr. Isaac Gladwin, and Mr. Isaac 
Gladwin, senior. This mortality, which is at the rate of one death in 
every fifteen months out of a professional body whose living members 
have seldom if ever exceeded twelve at a time, is something startling. 
Only ten years ago, a small society of veterinary surgeons used to meet 
together in this very house, as we ourselves are.now assembled, and we 
conversed together pretty much in the same manner we are now con¬ 
versing ; they plodded the same streets we tread, but since then death 
has made sad havoc in that little band of ten members, only four now 
survive, and three only remain in the profession. 
Such, my friends, is life! and even now, scarcely a week passes with¬ 
out the king of terrors making an attempt, as it were, to snatch one or 
another of us from out of our midst by accident or sickness. Is it not, 
I would ask, matter sufficiently solemn to awaken many serious thoughts ? 
These are facts that sound to me like foot-falls on the confines of ano¬ 
ther world. Let us think of it, for it warns us that our time of depar¬ 
ture hence is approaching as inevitable and certain as the silent watches 
of the night follow the day. 
Gentlemen, I have thought it not out of place to pay what appeared 
to me a fitting tribute of homage to the memory of our departed veteri¬ 
nary friends, the contemplation of which discloses to us how close we 
stand in the midst of our ambitions and successes to the dark and 
noiseless grave. We see the cypress vies with the orange blossoms, 
and we turn with sorrow to note the losses we have sustained by death. 
*2ndly. Veterinary medical associations, and the important usefulness oj 
which they are susceptible . 
In the very excellent inaugural address delivered a short time since 
in Leeds, I had the pleasure to hear the president, Mr. E. G. Dray, 
very beautifully illustrate the tendencies of this enlightened age to form 
associations, when, among others, he referred to co-operative societies, and 
the formation of veterinary medical associations in various parts of Eng¬ 
land, and in Scotland, and which he further illustrated by the contem¬ 
plated association of sovereigns invited to a congress in Paris. I feel 
a strong desire that as many of the members of the Yorkshire society 
as can should become members of our association, and give us their 
countenance and support; also that our members should fully reciprocate 
this, remembering that whenever Lancashire and Yorkshire have heartily 
united their brawny and stalwart arms together, whether in a social or 
political movement, or whether it be with a Wilberforce for negro 
emancipation, or with a Bright for a repeal of the corn laws, or in any 
other good cause, their power is irresistible; and still further remem¬ 
ber, that the great natural barriers which have separated these two 
counties from the beginning of time are now broken through, that the 
Yorkshire hills are bored, and we are now as it were one family, one 
society. It appears to me that these veterinary medical associations are the 
forerunners of a new era in our profession, but I particularly wish to 
impress upon your minds this fact, that, neither veterinary medical 
associations, nor compacts of any other kind, can be lasting unless there 
exists in such bodies linked together a certain motive for cohesion, a 
certain number of inducements to union which will render their common 
dependence agreeable, and the task of management light. And, more¬ 
over, that no system can succeed without the presence of favourable 
circumstances, added to the influence of good laws. There must be a 
