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THE VETERINARIAN, MARCH 1, 1872. 
Nc quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
Under ordinary circumstances, the changes which have 
just taken place at the Royal Veterinary College would furnish 
materials for critical observation in this Journal; but the fact 
of the appointment of Professor Simonds, the chief editor, 
to the post of Principal, renders it almost impossible for us 
to discuss the recent events which have transpired at our alma 
mater with the necessary freedom which such a subject de¬ 
mands, without at the same time indulging in personalities 
which w r ould be distasteful. But, on the other hand, the 
omission of any allusion to matters in which the whole profes¬ 
sion is interested would justly expose us to censure and 
reproof. 
A method of escape from the dilemma offers itself in the 
form of a simple narrative of facts in the order of their 
occurrence. On the death of the late Principal, Professor 
Spooner, in December last, our colleague was requested by the 
Governors of the college to assume the directorship until 
another Principal should be elected at the next General 
Meeting of Governors, which was held on Pebruary 6th and 
adjourned to Pebruary 20th, on account of the meeting of 
Parliament on the first-named day compelling a majority 
of the Governors to be absent. 
The adjourned meeting was well attended, and the first 
business performed was the election of a Principal. That 
Professor Simonds should have been selected to fill the vacant 
office is no more than the profession expected. As the senior 
officer in the institution, the position reverted to him in the 
natural order of things; of his fitness for the post we must 
leave his reputation to speak in words from the utterance of 
which we are debarred ; but at any rate, we are permitted to 
draw our conclusion, in common with our readers, of the 
