234 SPECIAL MEETING OF COURT OF EXAMINERS. 
that the blood gets congealed in the upper part of the neck. This 
opinion, I believe, has been also expressed by Mr. Humphries. I 
can only add that after many years’ practical experience, I give the 
pole-axe the preference to any instrument I have ever seen used as 
being the most effectual in destroying life.” 
Mr. Arnold, surgical instrument maker, Smithfield, reported :— 
“With reference to the mechanical construction of the instrument 
exhibited and used by the inventor, I much question if it be prac¬ 
ticable to employ an ordinary spiral wire spring of sufficient power 
to penetrate the skull of a beast without rendering it almost a 
matter of impossibility to draw up or set the spring, on account of 
its great amount of resistance. If the spring or springs be made 
the requisite strength, then some other means would have to be 
devised for setting the instrument ready for action. If the animal 
was at all restive the trigger might be accidentally touched, which 
would render the operation somewhat dangerous.” 
Professor Simonds reported :—“ I fully agree with the opinions 
expressed by Mr. Garton and Mr. Arnold in their respective capaci¬ 
ties ; and further, on scientific grounds, I cannot advocate the 
division of the spinal marrow—pithing—by the use of a dirk or any 
other kind of instrument in preference to the direct destruction of 
the brain by the pole-axe. In the one case—pithing—the brain 
with the origin of all the nerves of special sense'is left unharmed, 
and therefore in its normal condition as the primum mobile of the 
animal organism ; in the other its functions are at once cut short, 
and with this, life itself. In other words, the head in pithing 
remains alive while the rest of the body is slowly dying, when the 
operation is expertly performed ; in the other the stunning effects of 
the blow, even when the skull is not broken in, so completely 
arrests the function of the brain that the body is deprived of 
sensation if not immediately of life. Failure with the pole-axe is 
rare. Failure with any kind of pithing instrument must in prac¬ 
tice prove frequent. Humanity shrinks from - contemplating the 
different conditions of animals dying under these different cir¬ 
cumstances.” 
ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
EXAMINATION. 
A Special Meeting of the Court of Examiners was held on 
the 12th of February, in accordance with the resolution of the 
Council, for the admission of candidates holding the Highland 
and Agricultural Society's certificate, when Mr. William Smith, of 
Dumboola, Ceylon, underwent the necessary examination for the 
diploma, and was admitted a member of the body corporate. 
