REVIEW— MR. PERCIVALL’S HI PPOPATHOLOGY. 109 
The man who takes on himself the onerous responsibility of 
giving an opinion on the works of another, should “ nothing ex- 
tenuate, nor aught set down in malice.” To begin, then, with 
what too often proves the end— finding fault — we neither like 
the title of the work, nor, in one particular, the arrangement ; no, 
we do not mean the arrangement, for that is excellent, but the 
doing of it to invent a term for the purpose. That Boxiana is an 
admirable title for a sporting work, or Morisoniana for a quack 
one, we readily admit ; but that a word should be coined approach- 
ing in the slightest degree to such a shop -like sound as Hippopa- 
thology, for so important a work as “ Percivall on the Diseases 
of the Horse,” brings us at once at issue. The works of medical 
authors constitute admirable examples in this respect ; for their 
titles are, generally speaking, as plain and intelligible as those on 
the most common-place subjects, and it is most desirable that 
their example should be followed by veterinary writers. It is 
true we are somewhat fastidious on this point, and may as well, 
as the opportunity offers, out with a grudge we have always 
had against the title of our monthly periodical, The Veteri- 
narian. Why not at once call it the Veterinary Medical 
and Surgical Journal, or some similar name ? — hut this by the 
by. The fault we have to find in the doing of the work, is the 
giving the details of individual cases occurring to other practi- 
tioners, instead of merely collecting the facts and giving the au- 
thorities for them. 
The more cases an author gives of his own to illustrate his 
opinions, the better; for in these he has his own observation and 
intelligence to depend on, and is not likely to be misled in his 
conclusions; but we all know that the slightest additional shade 
of colouring, the omission of some apparently unimportant de- 
tail, or the partial view taken of some particular symptom or 
remedy, will so alter the entire features of a case, that the con- 
clusions deduced from it by the narrator must be taken “ cum 
grano salis” by him who is before the public. 
But enough of this : and it is with pleasure we can give our 
warmest praise to the first part of the third volume which has 
just appeared ; and this is saying not a little, when it is known 
that the first portion of it is taken up by a subject of which we 
VOL. xvi. p 
