228 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



be said in this connection : I do not propose to dictate. 

 My object is suggestion, not dictation. If I advance 

 opinions, I shall give the reasons which support them. 

 If I declare a thing wrong, I shall show why and 

 wherein it is wrong. The reader can think as he 

 wishes; but I propose to have every one know what 

 I think, and why I think it. 



The trouble with many books on this general sub- 

 ject is, that common uneducated readers cannot under- 

 stand them. To a vocabulary essentially technical and 

 scientific, and therefore unfitted to be the vehicle of 

 imparting ideas to the masses, is attached a habit of 

 using Latin and French terms, which not one reader in 

 five hundred can translate. Indeed, it would seem 

 that certain authors suppose that the use of a Latin 

 nomenclature increases the value of description, and en- 

 hances the reputation of the writer ; for they use it as 

 often as possible, in season a«d out of season. If they 

 speak of the last bone in the foot, instead of saying 

 the pedal bone, they say the os pedis j if of the caronal 

 bone, it is the os caronce ; and so on. The result is, 

 that none but college-educated men among the masses 

 can follow their diagnosis, or understand their descrip- 

 tions ; and a book which might have been a delight 

 and profit to the purchaser, and which was bought in 

 the expectation that it would be, is, after repeated 

 attempts to understand it, thrown aside in disgust, and 

 rightfully pronounced a humbug. 



Now, I wish all to be assured at the start that there 



