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THE VETERINARIAN, SEPTEMBER 1, 1870. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — C icebo. 
DISINFECTANTS IN N ON-INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 
In his intercourse with the world which lies outside his 
own exclusive circle the scientific man has very often to 
deplore the want of technical knowledge among those who 
may fairly claim to belong to the educated classes. It is 
eminently unsatisfactory to the philosopher to mark the 
utter blankness of expression which so commonly spreads 
over the face of one who has with due politeness been 
listening to an explanation of an obscure point in pathology 
or therapeutics, and to feel that the well-meant endeavour 
to enlighten has only rendered " confusion worse con- 
founded.” 
Intelligence of high order seems to be of little avail when 
a point of science has to be comprehended ; the mind which, 
albeit devoid of military knowledge, can at once grasp all 
the salient points in the description of a grand manoeuvre, 
flounders hopelessly in the presence of a theory of inflam- 
mation ; and the amateur who can follow with appreciative 
delight the intricacies of a long legal harangue, becomes 
puzzled in a short space under the influence of an argu- 
ment on polarization, or the special relations of antagonistic 
atoms. 
Sometimes, however, the unscientific educated man, as 
we must be allowed to call him, makes an effort to emanci- 
pate himself and stands forth as the critic of scientific 
literature, or professional proceedings, and then it is that, 
doing his own reputation some little damage perhaps, he 
nevertheless does service to the scientific man by clearly 
indicating to him, not the fallacy of his reasoning, but his 
failure to make his argument popularly intelligible. There 
are numerous instances in which this defect is apparent, 
notably one frequently occurring example presents itself. 
