506 A COMMUNICATION FROM C. DICKENS, M.R.C.V.S. 
artery at once. I would observe that whoever should have 
the next animal of this description to destroy, must take care 
to be well provided with knives, the toughness of the skin 
and integuments defying ordinary ones, and almost ordinary 
strength. I am also most fully convinced of the great ad- 
vantage of using chloroform in all operations upon animals. 
I may add, that the whole of the viscera appeared healthy ; 
the feet only were diseased, and could they have been 
cured, there is no knowing to what age the animal might 
have lived. 
[We doubt not that our readers will be gratified by the 
above account, it being far more satisfactory than the brief 
notice we were enabled to give of the transaction in our last 
number, which was copied from the daily press. 
The editor of the Pharmaceutical Journal remarks that “ the 
tenacity of life in this case is in remarkable contrast to the 
nervous susceptibility of the elephant in the Regent’s Park. 
That animal was so alarmed at the thunderstorm on the 14th 
July, that she trembled with fear, refused her food, was 
attacked with diarrhoea, and died in rather more than twenty- 
four hours. She had previously been in good health.] 
A COMMUNICATION 
From C. Dickens, Member of the Council of the Royal 
College of Veterinary Surgeons, Kimbolton. 
Gentlemen, —There is no portion of a periodical more 
anticipated, read with greater interest, or extensively criti- 
cised, than its “ Leader hence, some remarks which have 
lately appeared in yours, upon the appointment of veterinary 
examiners, have produced a communication from Mr. Gamgee; 
and we must take it as highly complimentary that one so 
rapidly advancing in the higher branch of human medicine, 
should not altogether have forsaken the lower one ; that 
with all his adoration for his new love, he does not forget his 
old one, nay, still feels an interest in her welfare, and acknow- 
ledges with gratitude the favours he received during the days 
of his youth at her hands. 
That gentleman and yourselves differ as to the mode of 
electing veterinary examiners, but agree in conclusion that 
the power is entirely vested in the Council, as elected by the 
body of the Profession. Would it not have been a more con- 
venient mode for that gentleman to have attended our annual 
