464 
REVIEW. 
Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non. — Hon. 
The Law concerning Horses, Racing, Wagers, and Gam- 
ing ; with an Appendix containing recent Cases , Statutes , §c. 
By Geo. Hewitt Oliphant. B.A., Esq., of the Inner Temple, 
Barrister at Law. Small 8vo, pp. 322. Sweet, Chancery-lane, 
London, 1847. 
PROFESSORS of veterinary medicine in Britain would be loath 
to admit that, either in the knowledge or practice of their art, they 
were behind veterinarians of foreign countries ; and yet there is 
one branch of their science which, nearly and dearly as it concerns 
them, has been by them grossly neglected, and that is Veterinary 
JURISPRUDENCE. Lectures we have heard none on the subject; 
treatises we have none. Theses and parts of works on general 
subjects have indeed, from time to time, been penned by some of 
our professional brethren on that vexatious question, soundness, 
but nothing has been produced in the shape of a system of juris- 
prudence : on the contrary, every veterinary practitioner has been 
left to form his own private code of laws of what does or what does 
not constitute soundness, and hence, to our continual discredit, have 
gone forth to the world the most wild and contradictory opinions. 
It is, therefore, with feelings of pleasure that we hail the appear- 
ance of such a work as the one before us, calculated, as it appears, 
to lay the first stone of a new edifice in the veterinary world, and 
of one which we are most anxious to see completed. 
The moment medicine becomes amenable to law, such an amal- 
gamation of the two sciences takes place, that no advocate, or even 
medical evidence, can be said to be prepared for his duty, unless 
he possess a knowledge, to the required extent, of both : hence 
the need in horse causes of veterinary jurisprudence, to the lawyer 
as well as to the veterinarian. When law, however, is called 
forth to settle medical matters — be they human or be they vete- 
rinary — unless it suffer itself in its proceedings to be guided by 
medicine, it will be apt to go astray ; or rather, perhaps, the two 
sciences will advance with firmest and surest step, hand in hand, 
linked in reciprocity t of attachment, aiding and supporting each 
other : hence has it turned out that the most prized works we pos- 
sess on the subject of medical jurisprudence have emanated from 
