THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
73 
but partially dissected, and some were rapidly decomposing, with- 
out attracting the attention of anybody. The effect of the whole 
scene impressed me with the belief that the same negligence and 
apathy which I had observed in other branches of the establish- 
ment also pervaded the anatomical department of the Royal 
Veterinary College. Only around two of the numerous tables 
were congregated a few students; and these young gentlemen were 
indulging in so much noise, that it would have been difficult to 
decide whether they were engaged in study or amusing them- 
selves by some less serious and more excited pastime. 
In this room I was informed that every morning, according to 
the regulations of the school, the pupils should assemble to listen 
to the anatomical demonstrator. The custom, however, had not, 
during the present session, been complied with, in consequence of 
the demonstrator having refused to deliver the discourses. In 
justification of his strange behaviour two reasons are advanced : 
In the first place, the demonstrator declares that, when he under- 
took the office, a distinct promise was made that he should be 
allowed to occupy the theatre during the hour of instruction, and 
on the fulfilment of that promise he insists as a part of his original 
contract. In the second place, he urges the obvious unfitness of 
the dissecting-room, and pleads his personal experience of the in- 
convenience which arose from the apartment being used for the 
reception and instruction of a large class. 
It is but fair to add, that the party with whom the contract (a 
verbal one) was made, stoutly denies, in the most positive manner, 
that any promise of the kind was given, though the probability of 
some alteration of the kind, it is admitted, was contingently 
alluded to. There is something wrong here. Who is right I 
cannot undertake to decide. I lament, however, that young men 
who come to London for very different purposes should have their 
minds occupied and their studies interrupted by feuds of this de- 
scription. It is not creditable to behold two persons, whose stations 
should make them zealous of respect, throwing about assertion 
and denial. This, however, is not the place to entertain the sub- 
ject; but I cannot quit it without saying, that, if no promise was 
made, the demonstrator must be a fool in his vanity and a genius 
in his impudence ; — a fool, to lie for a change which can bring to 
him no personal advantage; and a genius, to act thus determinately 
on a falsehood against the very party who must be best able to 
decide on his veracity. 
In the second objection I must most cordially concur. The 
dissecting-room is totally unsuited for the delivery of any discourse. 
Filled as it is with tables, it is hard to conceive where or how the 
auditory, if numerous, are to stand, unless every thing contained 
