300 
MISCELLANEA. 
they leaped up, and were carried in the same manner. By this 
time the chickens in the garden and those in the hen-house began 
to be clamorous, and were attempting to follow their parent, who 
was in sore trouble and confusion, not knowing which of the di¬ 
vision to attend to first. To prevent serious consequences, how¬ 
ever, the servants interfered, and landed the whole safely in the 
hen-house, out of which no attempt of removal was made until 
the flood had subsided .—Inverness Courier. 
Veterinary Societies. 
We understand that at his lecture of to-day (April 27th), 
Professor Coleman, after eulogizing, in warm and just terms, the 
society for the discussion of veterinary subjects at present exist¬ 
ing at the College, addressed his class on the advantages which 
would result from the establishment of one of a more general na¬ 
ture ; and to which the practitioners of the metropolis might 
sometimes be allured. 
The present society, in which each student, in his turn, is 
compelled to defend a certain thesis against all opponents, by the 
cross-questioning and the badgering of which it admits, puts 
every youngster on the alert, and forces on him the knowledge of 
many a point of anatomy and physiology, of which he would 
otherwise have possessed a very obscure and unprofitable con¬ 
ception ; and it is an admirable preparation for his examina¬ 
tion. This very circumstance, however, has its corresponding 
evils ; and few practitioners, however accurate and varied their 
acquaintance with the grand principles of their art, would like to 
grapple with youths fresh from the dissecting table, and who 
would consider the slightest error with regard to minuteness of 
structure imperfectly compensated for by the sublimest concep¬ 
tions of nature and of truth. 
It was a misfortune and a disgrace to veterinary science in this 
metropolis when the Veterinary Medical Society became defunct. 
There is too little communication among veterinarians here, to 
expect that they will soon be brought to coalesce in the formation 
of a similar one ; but if such an one commences at the College, 
and is orderly conducted, and on the principle of medical socie¬ 
ties generally, and supported by the presence and countenance 
of the heads of the College, we have no doubt that the best of 
the metropolitan practitioners will be gradually attracted thither, 
and the interests of veterinary science essentially promoted. 
