THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
71 
is the very worst that can be conceived. From the very slight 
elevation of the seats, a person on the hindermost bench would in 
vain strive to see any thing which might be laid upon the lecture- 
table ; and, on inquiry, I learnt that, whenever any subject of 
interest is shewn to the class, confusion naturally resulted from the 
students standing upon the seats, or crowding towards the table ; 
this necessary consequence affording a motive for not introducing 
either choice or valuable specimens or expensive instruments into 
the theatre. 
The room, moreover, is badly ventilated, and, when I visited it, 
presented no picture of order or cleanliness. Nutshells and 
orange-peel strewed the floor. The table was wet and soiled — 
one or two vulgarly executed diagrams dangled against the wall — 
the blinds were indecently defaced with coloured chalk — and the 
paint which, long ago, had been placed upon the deal frame-work 
of this part of the building, was discoloured by time and disfi- 
gured by numerous devices. 
Out of the theatre we passed directly into the museum. Its 
length may be thirty feet, and it is Che most spacious room in the 
Institution. However, it seems to be larger than necessary, being 
occupied by preparations of neither a very choice, delicate, nor 
modern description. The dried specimens are so concealed beneath 
accumulations of discoloured varnish as to be for the most part 
worthless or unintelligible, and many others are so placed that they 
rather appear put out of sight than intended for inspection. Even 
the skeleton of the horse was imperfect: not to mention minor 
blemishes, the nasal bones were broken, and rudely kept together 
by coarsely threaded brass wire. My request to be favoured with 
a catalogue gained for me the strange intelligence that there was 
no catalogue, explanatory or otherwise, of this collection ; and, 
from what I heard, I much suspect there is no one person living 
who could undertake to describe the contents of this extraordinary 
museum of a public institution calling itself a “ College.” I was, 
moreover, gratuitously informed, that very much of that which 
was here brought together might without loss be thrown upon the 
dunghill, and that the pupils had no right of entry to the place, 
though some of the servants of the establishment could boast of 
such a privilege. Considering all the facts, the exclusion, how- 
ever indefensible, forms a subject of but little regret ; and the 
museum, I believe, is chiefly regarded as a lumber-room, where is 
kept the apparatus of the lecture -table, though it may likewise be 
useful to impress the ignorant and mislead the uninformed as to 
the scope or purpose of the Institution, and its capability of in- 
structing. 
