INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON HIPPOPATHOLOGY. 751 
You -have a Veterinary Medical Association, but if 
there were another association formed, by which the minds 
of the students were cultivated by general reading and discus¬ 
sions other than those of a professional character, consider¬ 
able advantage would, doubtless, arise. 
There were many other things which had been hinted at 
to-day, which I feel sure will result in great improvements ; 
but to those I will not further allude, as I am desirous of 
asking you to give a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Holt for 
kindly taking the chair to-day. 
The vote having been carried by acclamation, 
The Chairman said : In the name of the governors, I thank 
you very much indeed for your kind acclamation. I can 
only say, as I said before, that we shall be at all times 
delighted to advance your interests in every way, and it is 
a matter of sincere satisfaction that out of the large number 
of students who went up for their last examination there 
was only one rejection. 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE TO COURSE ON 
HIPPOPATHOLOGY. 
By Professor Wm. Robertson, F.R.C.V.S. 
Gentlemen, —However cursorily we examine the records 
of the experience and the doings of the past, we cannot 
fail to be struck with the fact that animals as well as men 
have in all lands, and in every age, been subject to disease. 
This truth is abundantly clear, whether the history we 
examine be records sacred or profane. From these notices, 
scanty and ill-defined although they may be, we may not 
unfrequently by careful comparison draw much valuable 
information, guiding us in forming an opinion as to the 
origin and nature of disease as then exhibited; as also the 
modes of its development, and the laws to which in its 
progress it seemed obedient. 
It is interesting to observe, that coeval with the subjuga¬ 
tion of animals by man, and their association with him in 
the fulfilment of his varied wants and necessities, there is a 
distinct recognition of this fact, the existence of disease, 
and a preparedness on his part to meet it. 
The earliest stockowners of whom we have any notice, 
