m 
Review. 
Quid sit pulchrura, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non. — H or. 
An Essay on the Therapeutical Effect of Purgatives on the Horse. 
By J. Field, M.R.C.V.S. London : Longman, Brown, 
Green, Longmans, and Roberts, pp. 50. 
LIaving already sat in judgment on the above thesis, it 
being the successful competing essay for the Prize Medal 
awarded by the Veterinary Medical Association, it may be 
expected that we should speak favorably of it. We confess 
that we had not anticipated seeing it in print ; but now that 
we have, and another opportunity has been thus afforded us 
of again perusing it, we can only say it has more than 
confirmed us in the correctness of the decision of the Council 
respecting its merits. It redounds much to the credit of the 
author, and lights up in our mental vision a bright prospect 
of his future. Entering thus early upon the literature of his 
profession is a proof, the best that can possibly be adduced, 
of the earnestness he feels for its onward progress, and we 
wish that many others would do as he has done, for we 
feel convinced that much talent lies latent, the rendering sen- 
sible of which would be followed by benefit to the profession, 
and raise it both in estimation and worth. 
The essay is introduced by a concise and pleasing history 
of medicine. This we have been strongly tempted to extract, 
but the crowded state of our pages precludes its insertion for 
the present ; hereafter we may give it, in another section, to 
our readers. The subject of the thesis is then entered upon 
by the author’s remarking that, C( in administering medicines, 
various circumstances must be taken into consideration.” 
Among these, he enumerates the conditional state of the 
agent, or state of aggregation, the results of chemical com- 
bination and organic peculiarities. Then, speaking of the 
quantities — these, he says, are to be determined by age, size, 
