REVIEW. 
146 
again, the names by which we distinguish and particularise 
them are by no means defined and settled on the other side of 
the channel, no more than on our own. Nor are we sure that 
we have been at all times happy or correct in our renderings of 
the French names of the colours and varieties into English. 
Indeed, the French are not, no more than the English, agreed 
among themselves as to the precise meaning of their distinctive 
appellations. 
We do not know therefore, altogether, that we can take 
much praise or credit to ourselves for having presented our 
readers with this translated sketch ; any more than that it may 
serve to bring this much-slighted subject in our own veterinary 
dominions on the tapis, and so perhaps may prove the means of 
some pains being bestowed or observations made on it ; seeing 
that we, as veterinarians, certainly may be said to possess a 
peculiar interest in it. In some of our regiments of cavalry, it 
falls to the duty of veterinary surgeons to take what is called 
the description of recruit horses; in which registry, comprising 
age, height, sex, &c., the colour and marks become the es- 
sential ingredients. The rendering of this (colour and marks) 
faithful and intelligible, will necessarily depend on the know- 
ledge of such matters possessed by the describer; enhanced, as 
that knowledge becomes, by a keen and searching and experi- 
enced eye. For the reason of “ description,” therefore, of the 
correct and technical nature such “ description/’ to be worth any 
thing, should undoubtedly be, it behoves us to make our- 
selves acquainted with the philosophy of colour as regards the 
coat ; the variations and fluctuations it is liable to ; the changes, 
under certain circumstances, it may undergo; the combinations 
it is found to be susceptible of ; their results, & c. &c. : knowledge, 
not only called for in military service, but at times, and in cer- 
tain situations, in private practice as well; and knowledge, at 
all times and in all situations, if not useful, at least creditable, 
to the veterinary possessor of it. 
