existed at Denezy without interruption, making, however, but slow progress, transmitting itself from individual to individual, and passing from one stable to the next. Denezy had already lost a vast number of animals, and, to put an end to the calamity, the authorities saw no other means than the general slaughtering of all the cattle contained in the locality.

The village of Villars-le-Comte was more fortunate, for, although cattle were here first attacked, since the month of May the disease has disappeared without any return. Probably the poor inhabitants of this district, possessing only one cow each, promptly disposed of it on the first signs of disease. It was not possible to trace the progress of the epizootic. It was supposed that it was brought from the canton of the Vallais, where, as in France, it frequently prevails.

A cow from Denezy was sold in the month of May at the fair of Romond, canton of Friburg; an inhabitant bought it, and sent into the pastures on the Alps for the summer: it arrived in the month of June in a meadow called the Great Tzermont, where it became ill, and died. This event awakened no suspicion, but in the month of July other cows of the same herd, which numbered about eighty head of cattle, became diseased, and many died. The cases becoming more numerous, and the mortality increasing, about the month of August the authorities were informed of it. The first veterinary surgeon employed did not know the disease; but others were consulted, who recognised the pleuro-pneumonia, and declared it contagious, and advised, as the only means of safety, the destruction of the whole herd. The mountain fortunately was isolated, and a hope was entertained of extirpating the epizootic by the sacrifice of this herd, but before this two head of cattle had left the Alps. A bull had been sent in the month of July to a neighbouring mountain, and a heifer had been fetched away a few days before the order arrived. The bull was shortly taken ill, and communicated the disease to a herd composed of about forty cattle, with which he was at the time. This herd was also condemned and destroyed, causing altogether a loss of 140 head of cattle. On the autopsia a great number of them were found affected with the disease, although during life they had exhibited all the signs of perfect health. Enquiries were now made about the heifer, and it was found in a stable with six other

horned cattle.

The Board of Health of Friburg took this opportunity to assure itself of the contagious nature of the disease. The stable in which the heifer had been put was isolated, and access to it easily prevented; a watchman was set over it, who had the sole care of the cattle it contained, and no one was allowed to approach this man, and he often purified himself. After a few weeks the cow which stood next to the heifer became diseased, and seemed to be attacked with pleuro-pneumonia, and the heifer very soon died of this affection. The remainder contained in the stable were now ordered to be killed. On the autopsia it was found that the animal next to the first diseased was much affected with the same disease; the next to it less, and those farther removed still less-finally, the two last were found to be healthy. One of the diseased cows was six months in calf, and the lungs of the fœtus shewed already traces of alteration of structure; and from this time the canton of Friburg was considered free from the disease, and the restrictions were removed.

In the month of November a case of pleuro-pneumonia occurred at Balle, at the foot of the infected mountain. The authorities being informed of it, ordered three other cows in the same stable to be destroyed, two of which were already infected. These four cows were lodged in a stable next to the one in which the heifer passed the night on its descent from the mountain. Since this time no other case has occurred in the Canton of Friburg, and the disease has been confined to Denezy. Contagion was the alone cause of pleuro-pneumonia in these two cantons : it did not prevail epizootically, as in Savoy and France, where cattle badly fed, and in poor condition, are often attacked.

We would not wish to see the slaughtering carried on so extensively as this; but we persist in the opinion that the means the easiest of adoption and the most advantageous to the interest of the government, and also the proprietors, would be to send to the butchers all cattle which exhibit the first symptoms of the disease. This would be more efficacious than the partial slaughtering, and the allowing of free communication, without control, of the infected animals with each other.

COMMUNICATIONS AND EXTRACTS.

To the Editors of " THE VETERINARY RECORD."

Edinburgh, July 15th, 1845.

Sirs,-THE report of the Council of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, published in your last number, contains a statement in reference to the Chemistry Class of the Veterinary College, Edinburgh, so singularly unjust and inaccurate, that I trust you will allow me space enough to point out its unfairness. At page 301, reference is made to the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland "giving a silver medal to the pupil who shall pass the best examination in Chemistry; and this too, be it remembered, in the face of a protest from the Professor of the School they patronize and protect against such a subject being taught in his class." I have marked with italics the passage I wish to comment upon. As I was the party by whom the pupils of the Edinburgh Veterinary College were instructed in Chemistry, and as I am likewise a member of the Highland Agricultural Society, I am in the best condition to say whether it was at the instance of that Society or of Professor Dick that the veterinary pupils were taught chemistry: and I beg to state emphatically, "that it is to Mr. Dick, and to him alone, that the merit of adding that branch of science to the curriculum of the Edinburgh College is owing. The following are the exact facts of the case :

Last summer (1844), having been informed that Professor Dick intended to have his pupils taught chemistry, I had several conversations with him on the subject. He informed me that for years he had wished to have them instructed in that science, but that he had partly been dissuaded from it by persons to whose judgment on this subject he was willing to defer; partly had been prevented by difficulties which he could not overcome. He added, that he was resolved to let nothing stand in the way of his wishes being fulfilled during the approaching session (1844-45), and that he had made arrangements with Dr. Fyfe to have his pupils taught by him. Before the session commenced, however, Dr.

Fyfe was elected Professor of Chemistry in King's College, Aberdeen, and Mr. Dick's views in regard to him were frustrated. I undertook, in consequence to instruct the pupils of the Edinburgh Veterinary College in Chemistry, and they attended a special course of lectures addressed solely to themselves, during last winter. The arrangement was between Mr. Dick and me, not between me and the Highland Society. The latter body were not informed of its having taken place till it was concluded between us, and took part in the matter no further than to express their satisfaction at learning that their Professor was securing for his pupils a knowledge of Chemistry. It was by Mr. Dick I was engaged to lecture: to him alone I was responsible for the mode in which I taught the class; and he was the only party on whom I had any claim as to remuneration. From these circumstances, the reader can judge how ludicrously inaccurate, and altogether unjust, the statement in the Report of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons is, which represents Mr. Dick as having protested against his pupils being taught Chemistry, the very branch in which he had taken the greatest pains to have them instructed. Mr. Dick's protest, which I heard, had reference to a different matter. He protested as a matter of right (whether justly or not I do not say) against his pupils being examined in chemistry more fully than on previous years; and against ignorance of that science, as a special branch of study, being made the ground of rejecting candidates otherwise well qualified. The latter part of the protest I think was quite reasonable (although the view which is taken of that has nothing to do with the question before us) in reference to young men, the great majority of whom had attended only one course of Lectures on Chemistry.

I beg further to mention, that the Highland Society has already declined to accept the compliment which the Council of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons sought to pay it at the expense of Professor Dick. At a Meeting of that body on Tuesday last (8th July), I was in my place as a member, when Burn Murdoch, Esq., president of the Veterinary College Committee of the Highland Society, rose to disavow on its part any approval of the representation given in the Report of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, which he further stated was quite inaccurate. Mr. Murdoch added, that it was Professor Dick, not the Directors of the

Highland Society, who had secured for his pupils a course of Lectures on Chemistry, and that there never had been any difference of opinion between them and him as to the desirableness of having that subject taught.

There is another statement in the report to which I wish to make a slight reference, From the way in which the medal of the Highland Society is referred to, in connection with the assertion as to Professor Dick, already discussed, a reader not otherwise informed on the subject cannot fail to draw the conclusion, that, as the pupils of the Edinburgh Veterinary College were unwillingly taught chemistry, so they were left by their teacher without any encouragement in the way of premiums to study that science, and that the Highland Society stepped in to supply the deficiency. I do not blame the Council of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as a body because such a representation of matters has been given. But their Secretary, at least, knew that it was a very unjust one. The Highland Society's medal was only announced on the day of examination. No anticipation of such a thing being given existed on the part of the members of the class; it supplied, therefore, no motive to exertion on their part, and the competition was, in the end, open only to the candidates for diplomas, who did not form more than a third of the class. The latter was not left, however, without inducements to exertion. Two silver medals of the same value as those of the Highland Society were offered for competition to the whole class; the one for the best answers to a series of questions, in writing, on Inorganic and Organic Chemistry-the other for the best Essay on the "Connection between Chemistry and the Veterinary Art." Three Essays were given in, and they were so good, that considerable difficulty was experienced in deciding which was the best. Ultimately, prizes were given to the authors of all of them, and I availed myself of the assistance of the chemical examiner (Mr. McGregor) appointed by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in settling which of the Essays deserved the medal. He spontaneously expressed his satisfaction with the papers placed in his hands as evidences of knowledge and ability, and the Essays were laid on the table at the close of the examination. The medals, which Mr. Gabriel had more than once in his hands, were ultimately presented by Dr. Knox to the successful students, in the presence