THE VETERINARY RECORD, AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. EDITED BY PROFESSORS SPOONER, SIMONDS, AND MORTON, ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. VOLUME III. ILLUSTRATED BY ENCRAVINGS AND WOODCUTS. "PRESTAT IN OMNIBUS EXPERIENTIAM STRICTE PREMERE; UT ET, NATURE LONDON: PUBLISHED BY LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER Row. 1817. THE VETERINARY RECORD, &c. VOL. III.] JANUARY 1847. [No. 10. ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. THE Medical Session commenced at the above Institution on Monday, October 12th, 1846. The Introductory Address was delivered by Professor SEWELL. The Professor having expressed gratification at seeing so many friends around him, proceeded to remark on the alteration made in the period for commencing the lectures, which, he believed, would prove beneficial by allowing a longer time to students for dissection, and also enabling them during the summer months to be practically engaged in the acquirement of professional knowledge with their preceptors. It was a source of satisfaction to him to know that within the walls of the College were now taught all the divisions of study necessary to the perfecting of the education of the veterinary surgeon; and, the curriculum being thus far complete, he felt assured that but one desire would actuate both the teacher and the taught,—namely, that of advancing the veterinary profession by the establishing of sound principles, and the inculcation of a spirit of oneness and of amity. In the earlier ages the practice of medicine was necessarily rude and empirical; and traditions were handed down from one practitioner to another, these having no foundation beyond that of benefit having once resulted from the adoption of a particular course, or the employment of a certain agent. And probably, before the flood, diseases were not so general as afterwards; the altered condition of the earth favouring their development. The practice of veterinary medicine was, doubtlessly, coeval with that of the human, both having their origin in similar causes. Moreover, "flocks and herds," we are told, constituted the riches of the inhabitants of the East during many generations, the horse |