417 
THE VETERINARIAN, JULY 1, 1853. 
Ne quid falsi dicere auaeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero, 
DEATH OF PROFESSOR SEWELL. 
On Wednesday, the 8th of June, 1853, departed this life 
William Sewell, Esq., the second occupant of the Professor’s 
chair at the Royal Veterinary College, London. Fifteen 
years ago, in July, 1838, died the first tenant of the same 
chair. Professor Coleman. Although the writer of this 
article, from his intimate acquaintance with both Professors, 
is nowise unfitted, so far as that acquaintanceship goes, for 
the task, yet will he abstain in this notice from instituting 
any comparison between two men who both signalised them- 
selves in the performance of the duties of their station, albeit, 
perhaps, no two individuals differed more widely in their 
professional and private characters than did Professor 
Coleman and Professor Sewell. Those of the veterinary 
profession who knew them best, will be best able to appre- 
ciate the truth of this assertion. 
Professor Sewell entered the Veterinary College in the 
year 1796, as an apprentice to Coleman, the then Professor 
at the Institution. As a young man, he was eccentric and 
reserved in his habits, but withal was a most steady, atten- 
tive, and exemplary apprentice : qualities which he may be 
said to have retained to the last days of his existence ; though 
as years advanced, he became more relaxed and free in his 
associations. During the entire fifty-seven years he was 
connected with the College, first as assistant to Professor 
Coleman, subsequently as Sub- Professor, and lastly as Pro- 
fessor, in this steady, and uniform, and unremitting perform- 
ance of his duties, day after day, and month after month, 
without the expression or seeming desire, on account of what 
the world calls i( pleasure,” or any other pursuit, to anywise 
shirk or neglect them, perhaps no man in his vocation ever 
surpassed our late Professor. Without either talents of the 
first order or profound scholastic attainments, he read Na- 
ture’s book with a success in the practice of his art which 
not many can boast of ; and to this day do monuments of his 
diligence in practical research stand firm, and to a remote 
day will some of them be found still standing. 
For many years Professor Sewell, then Demonstrator at 
the College, had been in the habit of showing a small canal 
pervading the medulla spinalis, running, as far as he could 
trace with his naked eye, throughout the length of the marrow. 
xxvi. 55 
