537 
REVIEW. 
Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non. — Hon. 
PERCIVALL ON GLANDERS AND FARCY. 
To review a work on farcy and glanders is by no means a 
pleasing or a gratifying task, more especially when, as in the 
present instance, it lacks the exciting stimulus of having dis- 
covered some three or four new species, or, at least, of having 
brought to light a very valuable remedy, if not a positive specific, 
for this disease. What could the author have been thinking of 1 
what opinion could he have been expecting the profession would 
form, or what reception could he have been anticipating the public 
would give to a history of glanders, containing neither far-fetched 
theories, new discoveries, nor specific remedies for this fearful, 
inexplicable, disgusting disease 1 To be sure, he has given a full, 
true, and well-digested account of this opprobrium artis veteri - 
narice. He has recorded, fairly and impartially, the opinions of 
nearly all those who are worth knowing, and, in conclusion, he has 
had the moral courage at once to admit the fallacy of all remedies 
hitherto brought forward, and has very sensibly rested on the 
corollary, that prevention — which may be — is better than the cure 
— which may not be : but what of all that, says the utilitarian — has 
he discovered the cure 1 
Before we go farther, we may as well be candid, and acknow- 
ledge that, individually, we know nothing at all about glanders, 
and but very little about farcy; and, our consciences being lightened 
by the confession, we will venture on a few erratic remarks on 
such points as may attract our attention. 
One of the most important, and one that we have never yet seen 
sufficiently insisted on, is the distinction between infection and 
contagion, — a distinction as broad and palpable as ever existed 
between any two terms in the language; but, unfortunately, they are 
too often considered synonymous, and, even when this is not the 
case, they are too indiscriminately used, from the erroneous idea 
that, where the one is applicable, the other is most probably so 
also. 
We consider this to be a great and grievous mistake, and, after 
VOL. XVIII. 4 D 
