io6 



NA TURE 



[Dec. lo, 1874 



of farming as a business. Our scientific knowledge of 

 agriculture, even at the present day, is in a very 

 unsettled state. Theories have risen and fallen in a 

 way which has led rent-paying farmers to regard science 

 with indifference and suspicion. We find evidence of 

 this feeling in our daily intercourse with them. To a 

 large extent they are justified by the vagaries of some 

 of the so-called scientists. I see only one feasible 

 remedy for this, and that is the introduction of the neces- 

 sary quantity of pure science into the education of the 

 farming classes. This cannot be done in an agricultural 

 college or two. It must be done on a national basis ; 

 that is, by establishing science classes in every middle- 

 class college and school throughout the length and 

 breadth of the land. And having done this, a few 

 normal schools of agriculture would soon arise to com- 

 plete and crown the work. If scientific instruction were 

 placed on a national basis, the normal schools would 

 become filled with the best minds in the country. In the 

 absence of such a system an isolated school or college 

 cannot prevent itself from doing mischief in one direction 

 which has escaped attention ; I mean, that if the best 

 men do not enter it, inferior men acquire what I may 

 call an artificial brand which enables them to obtain high 

 positions in connection with agricultural industry — for 

 example, as estate agents and managers — to the exclusion 

 of men of superior natural powers, and to the detriment 

 of the national interests. In other words, the natural 

 law of Selection is subverted. 



Thomas Baldwin 



TffE SHEEP 

 The History, Structure, Economy, and Diseasts of the 

 Sheep. By W. C. Spooner, M.R.V.C. Third Edition. 

 (London : Lockwood and Co., 1S74.) 



'"pHROUGHOUT the whole historic period the sheep 

 -«- has been a source of wealth to man. Mutton has 

 been a staple article of human food, and wool one of the 

 staple materials out of which fabrics have been made for 

 human use. At no period in the history of the United 

 Kingdom has the sheep been so much the object of the 

 farmer's solicitude and care as at the present day. A new 

 edition, purporting to be carefully revised and consider- 

 ably enlarged, of a work exclusively devoted to the 

 animal, from the pen of Mr. W. C. Spooner, V.S., is, 

 therefore, manifestly entitled to attention. Mr. Spooner 

 has written much. To Blackie's " Cyclopcedia of Agri. 

 culture " he contributed several valuable papers on veteri- 

 nai-y subjects. He has written several other thoughtful 

 essays. He is best known as the editor of an edition of 

 White's "Veterinary Art." The work now before us is 

 the one by which he can best be judged as an author. 

 The title of the volume is pretentious. It would lead the 

 reader to expect an exhaustive treatise ; but the most 

 superficial examination corrects this impression. 



The volume extends to 322 pages. It is divided into 

 three parts. The first part contains eighty-two pages, and 

 is devoted to the history of the several breeds of sheep. 

 The second part treats of the structure and economy of 

 the sheep, and contains loS pages ; and Part III., occu- 

 pying the remainder of the text, is devoted to the diseases 



of the animal. With one or two" exceptions, the matter 

 is arranged under these three heads. The exceptions are, 

 however, unpleasant and unaccountable. This arises, to 

 some extent, from treating of the structure and "economy" 

 under one general heading. In this part of the work the 

 author treats of breeding and feeding, which, according 

 to his notions, are manifestly embraced in the term 

 " economy." In the historical section of the book a good 

 deal of information is given on the origin of new breeds, 

 and it is to the repetition of some of this in the chapters 

 on breeding, and the influence of ram sales in the second 

 part of the book, that exception may justly be taken. Tau- 

 tology, in this busy age, is a great fault. In the present 

 instance it is the less pardonable, because it is not neces- 

 sary, or even intended, to call back the mind to principles 

 previously expounded. 



In the account given of the several breeds no principle 

 of classification appears to have been kept in view. The 

 practical value of the facts is not, of course, lessened by 

 this circumstance ; but it must be admitted that the value 

 of a book is greatly enhanced to the public by a proper 

 classification and arrangement of its matter. Judged by 

 this standard, Mr. Spooner's work is singularly defective. 

 In an essay or chapter on breeding, in Part II., we are 

 treated to a disquisition on the merits of the several 

 kinds of sheep which should have been embodied in the 

 description of the several breeds in Part I. In the section 

 devoted to feeding, there are certain theoretical considera- 

 tions on the size and structure' of the chest and abdomen, 

 which should have appeared in the account of the struc- 

 ture of those regions given in an earlier part of the same 

 section. 



It is a most ungracious task to write unfavourably of a 

 work of this kind, but the truth is that this new edi- 

 tion affords evidence'of great want of care and thought 

 in its preparation. Words and phrases, and even whole 

 sentences, occur throughout the work which illustrate this 

 stateriient. Take, for example, the following sentence, 

 which occurs in the section on feeding : — " The supe- 

 riority of particular improved breeds is now generally 

 acknowledged, and may indeed be considered to be esta- 

 blished on certain principles, though in arriving at these 

 principles it must be confessed that we are little indebted 

 to science, but rather to the long and attentive obser- 

 vation and correct reasoning of practical men." Overlook- 

 ing the defective structure of the whole of this sentence, 

 we would observe that the author's view of the nature of 

 science must be peculiar, to say the least of it. If attentive 

 observation and correct reasoning be not science, we 

 should like to know how science ever arose. It would 

 seem as if speculative reasoning were synonymous with 

 science in the mind of our author. 



We take another illustration of the culpable want of care 

 bestowed on the prepar.ition of this work from the section 

 devoted to the treatment of scab. Dipping in arsenic is first 

 of all recommended as one of " the most simple and most 

 effectual." Nothing has been said of the dangers attend- 

 ing the use of this substance, or of the consequences 

 which have often followed its use. Mercurial ointment 

 is also recommended. We are told that "tobacco-water 

 is another remedy which has been found effectual, but 

 the high duty it is subject to hmits its application." The 

 author ought to have known that tobacco used for this 



