240 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



annually awarclcd for greatest proficiency in the several branches 

 taught; no instance having previously occurred in the history of the 

 college, -where a medal had been awarded to any student except in 

 his senior year. At his last examination, before graduating, he re- 

 ceived three out of the four^ awarded that year to the class, a cir- 

 cumstance equally unprecedented. 



The writer has before him the schedule of one of these nearly 

 perfect examinations, and on only two of the six pages of closely writ- 

 ten matter, can be found any corrections by the examining profess- 

 ors, and these evidently attach to accidental omissions by haste, and 

 not to mistakes of ignorance. 



About this time he got no small reputation for an essay on " Ty- 

 phus in Cattle," but the conclusions of his paper did not satisfy 

 himself so well as they did others, and he continued his investiga- 

 tions until he ascertained beyond doubt, that the mysterious disease 

 so fatally prevalent, and which he had deemed epizootic typhus, was 

 % in fi\ct, the effect of poisoning by lead. He showed also, that loss 

 from this cause was common in the vicinity of large towns — that 

 cattle often obtained it from the street manure spread upon the pas- 

 tures, and which contained tea-chest lead, scrapings of paint pots, 

 &c., all of which he repeatedly identified among the contents of their 

 stomachs after death. 



After graduating with high honors. Dr. Cuming established him- 

 self in a successful practice, at Ellon in Aberdeenshire, and during 

 the years of his residence there, repeatedly obtained the large gold 

 medal of the Highland and Agricultural Society for essays which 

 were published in their transactions. He was also connected with 

 the " Scottish Farmer," at that time published at Aberdeen, for 

 which he wrote many of the leading editorials. 



His removal to New Brunswick was in 1852, ftpon the invitation 

 of the St. John County Agricultural Society, and in the hope of 

 finding a competent support, and a broader field of usefulness where 

 veterinary science was almost unknown. Pecuniarily, he was un- 

 successful ; nor did pupils present themselves for instruction as he 

 had been led to expect. Although he bore testimonials of the high- 

 est character, the people generally among whom his lot was cast, 

 failed to see advantage by availing themselves of scientific skill, in- 

 stead of employing quack "horse doctors" whose ignorance was 



