310 ELECTION OF EXAMINERS BY CONCOURS. 
“ When water is exposed to air in an open vessel, the mole- 
cules of its uppermost or superficial stratum, being released 
from the influence of the molecules below them, have a 
natural tendency to assume that degree of polarity which is 
appropriate to their temperature ; hence, after acquiring the 
latent heat necessary to produce this polarity . . . the super- 
ficial molecules of water become self-repulsive, and fly off 
into space in the form of vapour. If the space over the water 
be circumscribed , and be a vacuum, the molecules fly off with 
such rapidity, as instantaneously to fill it. 55 
The expansion of vapours , indeed, under small increases of 
temperature, is extremely minute, being for every degree of 
Fahrenheit’s thermometer, only of the volume they occu- 
pied at 32° ; and, moreover, in the human body the tempe- 
rature necessarily falls after death. 
I am sorry to have occasion to trouble you with the request 
contained in this note ; and, with regard to the additional 
comments, I beg you will either include them, or not, as may 
seem most suitable. 
Yours, &c. 
8, Connaught Place West ; 
April 21, 1855. 
“THE PROPOSED CONCOURS FOR THE ELECTION 
OF VETERINARY EXAMINERS.” 
To the Editors of c The Veterinarian 
Gentlemen, — Grant me space, I pray you, for submit- 
ting to the public notice a few considerations suggested by 
the highly important leader on the above subject in your last 
number. 
With its main apparent object — the securing competent 
gentlemen as examiners — it is superfluous to express my 
unqualified concurrence. On the question of means we some- 
what differ. Thus, in my own case, your leader has perfectly 
succeeded, for its writer obviously aimed at commanding 
assent to its principle, — at instituting an inquiry into the 
mechanism for its working. 
For trespassing on your own and your readers’ indulgence, 
my reasons admit of succinct statement. 
The subject of Veterinary Examination is one which has 
especially occupied me. Practically acquainted with its 
