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A LETTER FROM MR. MAYHEW 
IN REPLY TO MR. BARLOW’S PAPER IN OUR LAST NUMBER. 
To the Editors of “ The Veterinarian .” 
Gentlemen, — Mr. Barlow, of the Edinburgh Veterinary Col- 
lege, addressed a letter to The VETERINARIAN which appeared in 
the last number of your Journal. The writer must excuse me when 
1 say I cannot comprehend the object he had in view when he put 
pen to paper. In the first place, his observations are obscure, 
deficient even in those essentials of language which few of the 
inhabitants of the north venture to neglect. Grammar is especially 
valuable where controversy is invited ; and when criticism is at- 
tempted, words should be employed with a knowledge at least of 
their popular meaning. From Mr. Barlow’s position, I am willing 
to believe that he is rather careless than ignorant, but his language 
is such as disables me from answering his assertions, or from re- 
plying to his opinions. 
When I venture to make such a statement, Mr. Barlow’s 
acknowledged talent renders it imperative I should support it by 
reference to fact. Did I appeal to the paper in which my name 
so frequently appears, it might be thought that personal feeling 
had influenced my judgment; and, to avoid any such suspicion, I 
will allude only to a treatise which was published in the Farmer s 
Magazine of January last, and I will proceed no further than the 
heading to that paper to establish the fact : — “ Essay ON EPIZOOTIC 
Pleijro-Pneumonia among Oxen and Cows. By John 
Barlow, jun., V.S., Anatomical Demonstrator, &c. at the Edin- 
burgh Veterinary College, which obtained the prize given by the 
Farmers and Graziers’ Mutual Cattle Association.” 
1 will make no comment on the obvious errors ; for though I 
have not the pleasure of personally knowing Mr. Barlow, that 
gentleman’s reputation has created in my breast a feeling of respect 
which hasty words or simple verbal mistakes cannot entirely 
destroy. He must, however, pardon me when I say that the 
carelessness of his style precludes the possibility of my replying 
fully to his statements, because I cannot venture to believe that, 
in the majority of the sentences he employs, his words represent 
his meaning. 
So far, however, as I can guess at that gentleman’s meaning, I 
am anxious to afford him every information in my power. He 
appears to be hurt that 1 was not aware of the extent of his know- 
ledge. I entreat him to believe that there was no intent on my 
