MISCELLANEA. 
300 
worn-out animals, and amongst them were several which had 
formerly belonged to the army. The thirty-three were soon 
killed, and the men proceeded to cut them up. Judge of the 
stupefaction of one of the men, named Matelot, on finding in one 
of them (the horses) a small box in silver, containing a cross of 
the legion of honour, and a paper, in a perfect state of preserv- 
ation, containing the following lines : — “ As I cannot survive 
the defeat of my emperor, and as I have neither wife, nor child, 
nor cousins, I am about to get myself killed in a last charge 
against those scoundrels, the English ; and as I will not let them 
have my cross, I will make my faithful horse, Chateau Margot, 
swallow it. He will give it up when he can. — Pierre Dar- 
denne, sergeant in the 2d squadron of Red Lancers.” Matelot 
took the things to the commissary of police of the district, and 
that functionary allowed him to keep the silver box. As for the 
cross, it was sent to the Grande Chancellerie of the Legion of 
Honour. From documents published by the professors of the 
school at Alfort, it appears that certain horses have lived to the 
age of forty-five ; that which Charles XII rode at the battle of 
Pultowa attained that age. The white charger of Napoleon 
livedltwenty-nine years. Chateau Margot is supposed to have 
been about forty. — Galignani. 
We do not believe this “ strange story but as it may happen 
to meet the eye of some of our continental veterinary brethren, 
we expect it may receive either confirmation or contradiction. 
Ed. Vet. 
SNAKE IN A HORSE’S STOMACH. 
A FEW days ago, a horse belonging to M. W. Ridsdale, 
farmer, of Rowley, near Wetherby, suddenly became ill, and 
died. After death, a living snake , eighteen inches long, was 
taken from the animal’s stomach ! — Stafford Advertiser , 5th 
April , 1851. 
Query. Was not this “snake” a lumbricus teres 1 — Ed. Vet. 
OBITUARY. 
On Friday, 18th April, at his country residence, Alvaston, 
near Derby, aged 78, John Mills, Esq., one of her Majesty’s 
Justices of the Peace for the town of Nottingham. 
Mr. Mills formerly practised as a veterinary surgeon, and was 
at his death, we believe, a Vice-President of the Royal Vete- 
rinary College. 
Do we deplore the loss of the “ Father of the Veterinary 
Profession V* 
