232 REVIEW — THE HORSE IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. 
Egyptian and Syrian horses, and, perhaps, Turkish too; as well as 
about the state of veterinary science, and how its professors or 
practitioners — if there were any — fared in countries whose manners 
and customs, soil and productions, were altogether so different from 
our own. We had pictured to ourselves, in addition, some accounts 
of the vice-royal stud and stables, and of that cavalry of which 
Napoleon is reported to have said, “ Give me Mameluke horse 
and my French Imperial Guard, and I will conquer the world*. ” 
But, no! — we were wrong in our preconception. The absence 
of any intimation of the kind in the author’s preface, with subse- 
quent dips into the bodyr of the work, shewed us Mr. Winter’s 
production was a sort of compressed general treatise — an epitome, 
in fact — of “ The Horse in Health and Disease.” When we came, 
however, to reflect what a wide sphere of subject-matter such a 
title embraces — there being, according to the author’s own shewing 
(in his title-page) comprehended in it, “natural and general history, 
varieties, conformation, paces, action, age, soundness, stabling, train- 
ing, shoeing, and veterinary practice;” — and to find that our author 
had contrived to squeeze it all into the space of an 8vo volume 
of not more than 365 pages of pica, we felt convinced some of the 
subjects must have been cut short ; and we must confess we sus- 
pected, when we saw it stated in the Preface that it had been his 
endeavour “ to make his treatise a vehicle for introducing to the 
lovers of horses his own views," that on other subjects the author 
might, from his limited space, have been induced to sacrifice at the 
shrine of “ his own views” those of others — by making the latter a 
sort of relief or back-ground to the former. Such, however, we 
were happy to discover, was by no means the case. On the con- 
trary, Mr. Winter has, within the limits he has assigned himself, 
on each respective topic save the two last, contrived to introduce 
matter of a character that will not only interest the professional 
man, but to the general reader will afFord both information and 
amusement, and has this conveyed in fewer words and more scien- 
tific language than in any work of the kind with which we are 
acquainted. In proof of this we shall now present our readers 
with some extracts; taking, under the heads of the several chap- 
ters, as we read on, those paragraphs in preference which appear 
to have been suggested by the author’s residence in Egypt. 
In chapter I, on “ The natural history and zoological classification 
of the horse and his congeners,” we find the horse held up in just 
estimation — 
** If he is not found equal to the dog in intelligence and personal 
* The Mameluke horse, or cavalry, we believe, no longer exists ; and the 
present Egyptian (conscript) cavalry, we are given to understand, are com- 
paratively tame and unformidable. 
