556 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Apparatus for showing the mechanical powers, with optical 
instruments, and others for explaining the theory of colours 
and of sound, are also employed by him, and they are kept in 
as admirable condition, as they are liberally supplied by the 
government. He was engaged in an experiment, considered 
by him to elucidate one of the phenomena attendant on life 
and organization. Albumen, obtained from the egg or 
muscular tissue, being diffused through water, and having 
carbonic acid gas or atmospheric air passed through it, be- 
comes, in about three weeks, coagulated, and forms an 
irregularly reticulated mass, resembling a false membrane. 
Albumen derived from the blood has not yet been found so 
to conduct itself. 
The dissecting rooms are spacious and lofty. They dissect 
the horse, the ox, and the dog. The infirmaries are not 
large. On one side are stables capable of accommodating 
about fifty horses ; and on the opposite side is a correspond- 
ing building for cattle and sheep ; while annexed is another 
smaller one for dogs. The patients then in the infirmaries 
were but few, the greater number being dogs. 
Near to the infirmaries is the forge, in which are five fires 
with anvils and the necessary tools, travises, &c. Here the 
students, in turn, are required to work from eight to ten o’clock 
in the morning, principally shoeing the horses of the public that 
are brought for gratuitous advice. It is to be regretted that 
they are still allowed to perform experiments on the living 
animal, some of them being as cruel as they are unnecessary. 
The museum consists of one large room, its ceiling and 
roof being supported by iron pillars. Placed against the 
walls are glass cases, in which the numerous preparations 
are kept. In pathological specimens it is ver}^ rich. As 
yet the whole is not satisfactorily arranged ; this, like other 
parts of the building, having recently undergone alteration. 
In the centre are the skeletons of the different domesticated 
animals, with models for practically exemplifying difficult 
and natural parturition in the mare and cow. In upright 
glass cases, on either side, are specimens of minerals and 
shells, parasites, stuffed birds and animals, with models in 
