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THE VETERINARIAN, FEBRUARY 1, 1843. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
Review of Mr. Percivall’s Hippopatiiology, 
Vol. Ill, Part 1. 
That in a field of such vast extent as that of veterinary 
medicine — a field in which the labourers have been so few and 
the soil hitherto so unproductive — in which, as general cultiva- 
tors, we have so few names to quote, and in which even attention 
to isolated facts has but very lately been properly paid and faith- 
fully recorded — in which a man, in order to obtain a result suffi- 
ciently satisfactory to enable him to sit down satisfied that his 
labours have not been in vain, must have devoted his life, not to 
scientific gleanings and the culling of theories and hypotheses 
left scattered around by those who have preceded him, for these, 
alas ! are so few and far between, that a comparatively very short 
period will suffice for the winnowing the wheat from the chaff, 
and leaving a sadly disproportionate heap of the latter, but to the 
daily and hourly drudgery by which alone experience can be pur- 
chased — by not merely noticing the facts that accumulate around 
him, but by endeavouring, at the expense of midnight labour, after 
the toils and fatigues of the day, to analyze and, as far as possible, 
to reduce these facts to their principles — to arrange — to clas- 
sify — and, still more difficult task, to coolly and unprejudicially 
reason upon and from them, and by these means create a source 
(how truly invaluable) whence he may pour forth information to 
his less enlightened, less laborious, and more easily satisfied com- 
peers : how noble a course is this ! But, when he has done all this, 
will the result be such as to enable him to enjoy his well-earned 
otium cum dignitate with pleasure and satisfaction ? — will his pro- 
fessional brethren cheerfully and willingly accord to him the meed 
of his labours ? — will they acknowledge the debt they have in- 
curred and the obligation they are under to him? If the question 
