TO THE EDITORS. 
679 
much as has been quoted should have been the whole, for a climax 
had been attained, the vigour of which ought to have been pre- 
served. 
“ — That is to say, according to the period from whence, by 
common consent, the ages of all thorough-bred horses are dated, 
the said mare commenced her fourth year on the 1st of Jan. 1845. 
“ Charles Spooner, Deputy Prof. 
Jas. B. Simon ds, Assist. Prof.” 
The above is a blemish. The opinion which was pronounced, 
to be decided and unanimous, should have required no explanation. 
Moreover, ‘ That is to say,’ is vulgar, and the people who use 
such a form of words have always nothing to express. When a 
man begins ‘ that is to say,’ prudent people always get away from 
his infliction, knowing that a hopeless state of mental confusion 
has been declared. Besides, the Professors were not saying, but 
writing ; and the grandeur of the preceding passage unfits the 
reader for a descent thus abrupt into prosaic colloquy. Again ; 
the dictionaries define such a combination of words as “ from, 
whence” to be “ a vicious mode of speech, and a barbarism.” 
Then, a spirit of illiberality pervades the passage. The Pro- 
fessors may not admire the Jockey Club, and they have pointedly 
intimated their opinions of that body of noblemen and gentlemen 
where the evidence, as to the name of the mare, is hinted to be 
doubtful ; yet there was no occasion to deny the truth in order to 
display a rancorous feeling. Horses date from the first of January 
by a special law of the Club, not by * common consent ;’ and as 
ignorance cannot be supposed to belong to the Deputy or the 
Assistant, the mis-statement bears an ugly aspect. It is the more 
ugly, inasmuch as it is needlessly introduced. The Jockey Club, 
surely, did not want to be informed on the point. No opinion on 
that respect was requested, and, if all thorough-bred horses date 
from a particular day, of course the “ bay thorough-bred mare” 
was not excluded : no purpose was, therefore, gained by the 
addition. Some hazard, however, was braved. By this law, a 
horse born on the last day of one year rates as a yearling on the 
first day of the next. I know of no sign or token that would 
warn the judgment if such an event had taken place; but, had it 
been the case in the instance to which I am now referring, the 
certificate would be at once upset. The teeth denote the positive 
and do not indicate the arbitrary age of an animal. To the actual 
age, therefore, prudence would have confined the document ; and 
with the arbitrary regulations of mankind, the veterinary surgeon 
has, and should pretend to have, no concern 
Having at so great a length commented upon the remarkable 
