MISCELLANEA. 
311 
considerable degree of reputation in his profession. It occurred to 
the judge that he would cause the bones to be examined by this 
man. “ These,” said the veterinary practitioner, “ belonged to 
an ox.” “ How! Are you sure of that] Do you know that we 
have the strongest reasons to believe that they are the bones of a 
human body, and the indubitable proofs of a horrible crime ?” 
“ Sir,” replied the man, “ all these bones belonged to an animal 
of the ox tribe. See this tibia, particularly : it does not leave the 
slightest doubt about the matter. Give me a few minutes, and I 
will convince you of this.” He went and found a leg of beef in 
the shop of one of the butchers in that town. He burned it, and 
presented it to the magistrates, united to a tibia the very picture 
of the one which had been examined. The medical men acknow¬ 
ledged their error, the prisoner was liberated, and returned to his 
hut and his oven. 
Gazette Speciale, Agricole et Vet'erinaire, 16 Aout, 1838. 
The Botanical and Agricultural Chair in the 
Veterinary School at Alfort. 
Conformable to a decision of the Council of the Professors, the 
Inspector General of the Schools presiding, it was determined that 
a new chair should be established in that school, comprising agricul¬ 
ture and hygiene, or the art of feeding and multiplying cattle. Those 
on agriculture containing its fundamental principles, the rules by 
which its practice is to be governed, and its numerous connexions 
with the especial objects of the study of the veterinary pupil, fur¬ 
nished the principles of a course of lectures delivered by M. Rodet 
in the course of the last session. 
In the scholastic year about to commence, the course of hy- 
gihie will be delivered, comprising the agents which naturallv, or 
under the influence of man, exercise or are made to exercise their 
action on the animals which we rear for food or other purposes. This 
will naturally include the art of multiplying the different species 
with advantage, and of improving the various breeds—of feeding 
and of managing them so as to enable them better to answer the 
purposes for which we breed them—of governing them at differ¬ 
ent ages according to their services and their produce, and so as to 
obtain from them a greater portion of labour or of general profit. 
This will necessarily include botany, or the classification and 
history and management of the various plants which are used for 
food or for medicine, or for commercial or other purposes. 
These are the courses of instruction now delivered in every \ e- 
