INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
753 
lence of certain elements in healthy blood, and detects its 
deterioration in disease. So likewise every other fluid yields 
up its visual secrets to the same pursuit of science, and you 
are enabled ultimately to gain something like a view of 
the many-patterned structure which the life of the being 
inhabits. When you have got to this stage of investi¬ 
gation, without having spent too much time upon it, I 
think you will all admit that you must be very different 
beings in mind, in insight, and in capacity of veterinary 
thought to the mere charlatan who only knows the animal he 
professes to treat by its external contour. Such a one is 
only fitted to wade and puddle in the shallow and turbid 
stream of imitation, and can never hope to enjoy the luxury 
of swimming in the deeper parts of the ocean of knowledge. 
The fact is that self-respect constitutes a great part of the 
success of the practice of any profession, or of any worthy 
calling in life; and knowledge of this nature, knowledge of 
the works of the Creator, cannot but ennoble the conscious¬ 
ness of the being who possesses it, and make him do better, 
and dare more to advance the good of his calling and the 
happiness of his fellows. Therefore I say to you, while 
you should not make a hobby of co-relative branches of science, 
to the neglect of the more practical pursuits of your pro¬ 
fession, you are not to despise them merely because you do 
not see their immediate bearing upon everyday practice. 
Now, after having by anatomical research made yourselves 
acquainted with the animal organism, taken it to pieces and 
reconstructed it in your own knowledge, the mind is inevitably 
led to ask what is the use of this wondrous mechanism, not 
only in its entirety, but also in the various parts of which it 
is made up? The answer to this question introduces us to 
another science—physiology—which, even when restricted in 
its application to animal life, is a wide and also a most specu¬ 
lative sphere of study to enter upon ; by its practical utility, 
however, to the healing art, and (inasmuch as our patients 
are mute) I should say more especially to the veterinary 
branch of that art, can scarcely be overrated, for without a 
knowledge of the functions of organs how can we be expected 
to be able to understand and correctly to minister to their 
diseases ? Suppose, for instance, we were unacquainted with 
the contractile action of the muscles and their antagonistic 
forces : many cases of lameness and distortions in our patients, 
which by our physiological knowledge we can now readily 
explain, must ever remain a mystery. Anatomy and phy¬ 
siology are so closely interwoven and dependent on each 
other, that they may justly be termed twin sisters, and it is 
