738 
DECREASE OF LIVE STOCK IN IRELAND. 
It appears from the following table that the returns of live stock in 
Ireland for 1880, compared with 1879, show a decrease in all descriptions. 
Years. 
! 
Horses and 
Mules. 
Cattle. 
Sheep. 
Pigs. 
Poultry. 
1879 . . . 
596,890 
4,067,778 
4,017,903 
1,072,185 
13,782,835 
1880 . . . 
582,053 
3,021,026 
3,561,361 
849,046 
13,426,729 
- 
Difference in 
Decrease, 
Decrease, 
Decrease, 
Decrease, 
Decrease, 
numbers be- 
tween 1879 
and 1880. . 
14,837 
146,752 
456,542 
223,139 
356,106 
Veterinary Jurisprudence. 
CONVICTION OF TWO AUSTRALIAN PRACTITIONERS, 
STYLING THEMSELVES VETERINARY SURGEONS, FOR 
SELLING POISONOUS AGENTS. 
In the Melbourne Weekly Times , just received, we find the following 
report: 
At the District Court, on Monday, August 2nd, before Mr. 
Call, P.M., 
James Leith and John R. Miscamble , described as veterinary surgeons, 
were summoned for illegally selling poisons. 
The prosecutions were taken at the instance of the Pharmaceutical 
Society of Victoria, for whom Mr. Dan Wilkie appeared, and stated 
that public attention had been lately drawn to the great number of 
deaths from poison, and as it was known that there were numbers of 
persons selling without the slightest restriction, the Society, in the in¬ 
terests of the public, had taken the matter in hand. It was shown in 
evidence that arsenic and tartar emetic had been sold, and that none of 
the requirements of the Act, as to registration or labelling, had been 
complied with, and the defendants, although styling themselves Veterinary 
Surgeons, had no legal qualification. 
The evidence of the person who purchased the articles, and of Mr. 
C. R. Blackett, who analysed them, being taken, the Bench fined the de¬ 
fendants Is., with £3 3s. costs, at the same time intimating that any 
future cases would be more severely dealt with. 
Mr. Wilkie drew the attention of the Bench to the smallness of the 
costs allowed. He thought that it was only fair that, as the prosecu¬ 
tion had been taken on public grounds, the Society should not be 
losers. 
