EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
704 
to those who may not happen to be conversant in the language of 
M. Bouley’s letter. 
In answer to the conjectures thrown out by us at page 626, 
commencing with the words, “ Why, we ask, was the name of 
Coleman omitted in this chosen list'?” M. Bouley says — “ Of 
these several suppositions, My dear Sir, one alone is true ; and 
that is, that I was not in possession of Coleman’s works, nor, I 
may add, was I able to procure them. You will recollect that, 
in reply to a private letter of mine, addressed to yourself, with a 
view of procuring those works, by purchase, if they were to be 
bought, or by loan for some months, you informed me they were 
not to be had at any price, and that your copy of them being in 
other hands in the country, was not at the time available. 
“ Thus was I, to my great regret, without the means of judging 
for myself, and of taking advantage, in the compilation of my 
own, of the works of a man held by you in such high esteem. 
I had no means of learning any thing about him save through 
some chance quotations in writers since his time. These were 
not sufficient to warrant me in hazarding an opinion. In doubt, 
I deemed it best to pass him over without mention. Hence the 
reason of my not inscribing the name of Coleman in the little 
knot of distingues I have enumerated in the Preface to my 
work,” &c. 
We have reason to congratulate our professional brethren at 
home, as well as ourselves, on the issue of this correspondence 
with our French brother veterinarian, since it promises to be 
the means of rescuing the name of one from oblivion, and from 
worse than oblivion — depreciation, who in his day had no pro- 
fessional superior among his compatriots. Those who have never 
personally known Coleman, w r ho have never heard him in the 
lecture theatre, but whose knowledge of him is limited to what 
they may have derived from his works alone, can, after all, form 
but an imperfect estimate of the man ; and we only regret 
that our friend M. Bouley can but stand in this position. We 
could shew him — one day, it is possible we may have an oppor- 
tunity of shewing him — transcriptions of “ lectures” delivered by 
Coleman at the time he stood at his height as Professor at our 
Royal Veterinary College, of a character likely to elicit from 
him regret that Coleman had not lived in a time when he might 
