Veterinary Jurisprudence. 
JURY COURT. 
Monday, December 28th. 
MCBRIDE V. WILLIAMS AND DALZELL. 
{Before the Lord President and a Jury.) 
Counsel for the Pursuer—The Solicitor-General and Mr. G. H. 
Thoms. Agents—Lindsay and Paterson, W.S. 
Counsel for tlie Defenders—The Lord Advocate, and Mr. Middleton. 
Agents—Macgregor and Barclay, S.S.C. 
ACTION FOR defamation. 
Yesterday the case in which John Adam M‘Bride, doctor of 
philosophy, veterinary surgeon, presently residing in Gillespie 
Street, Edinburgh, and lately professor of cattle pathology in the 
Edinburgh Veterinary College, was pursuer, and William Williams, 
veterinary surgeon, residing in Clyde Street, Edinburgh, and Allan 
Dalzell, doctor of medicine, residing at North Berwick, were defen¬ 
ders, was tried before the Lord President and a jury. The issue was 
in the following terms :— 
“ Whether between 4th and 18th March, 1868, both inclusive, the 
letter in the schedule annexed was written and sent by the 
defenders to the pursuer, and whether a copy thereof was 
sent by the defenders to Mr. Fletcher Norton Menzies, Secre¬ 
tary of the Highland and Agricultural Society ; and whether 
the defenders by said letter did falsely and calumniously re¬ 
present to the secretary and directors of the said Highland 
and Agricultural Society, or to the said secretary or directors, 
that the pursuer was incapable of discharging the duties of 
the said chair of cattle pathology in a proper and efficient 
manner, and that such was the unanimous opinion of the 
members of the Edinburgh Veterinary College Council—to 
the loss, injury, and damage of the pursuer ?” 
The damages were laid at .^‘5000. 
Appended to the issue was the following letter:— 
“ Dear Sir, —We have done all in our power, by careful inquiry 
impartially conducted, to arrive at the cause of the unseemly occur¬ 
rences which have taken place in your class, one of them no later 
than Wednesday last. We have no desire to hurt your feelings, 
much less to urge against you any wilful omission of duty, but we 
feel satisfied that you have failed to preserve that order in your 
class which is necessary for teaching it; and we need scarcely 
remind you that the occurrences we allude to, though happening 
only during your lectures, have a very bad effect on the general 
credit of this college. We are sorry that your position, in terms of 
