641 
REVIEW. 
Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non. — Hon. 
Posthumous Extracts from the Veterinary Records of the late 
John Field, Edited by his brother, William Field, 
Veterinary Surgeon, London. 8vo. pp. 236. Longman and 
Co. 
Th e memory of John Field is too fresh in our recollections to 
need more than the mention of his name to call to our reminis- 
cence many pleasant, social hours — many intellectual moments, 
spent in his company. Though himself a man of self-denial, and 
of that reserved and unobtrusive character that rather shuns 
than seeks the public gaze, yet his station at the head of a 
veterinary firm, for extent of practice greater than any to be 
found in Britain, perhaps in any other country in the world, 
brought him daily, nay hourly, before that busy world his nature 
would have led him to eschew, as well as almost daily in 
contact with some member of his own profession. Not with the 
latter professionally, however; for John Field had, as a prac- 
titioner, it would seem, a peculiar dislike to consultations : at 
least, it was rare, if ever, in his practice he called any one in to 
his aid in the solution of a case, however mysterious. This might 
probably arise from his having his father for part of his time, and 
his brother for the remainder, acting with him in the business. 
John Field entered the Veterinary College as a pupil in No- 
vember 1818, obtained his diploma in 1820, and immediately 
afterwards was taken into partnership by his father, John Field, 
senior. It will be in the recollection of some of our readers, that 
the business, which in the latter gentleman’s hands flourished 
and grew into the large concern it is at the present day, originated 
with the late Mr. Moorcroft, who was then Coleman’s joint-Pro- 
fessor at the Veterinary College. The tempting offer, however, 
of the East India Company to Mr. Moorcroft, induced him to 
relinquish both the professorship and the business, at that time 
the two best veterinary concerns going, and embark — as too 
many have done, never to return again — for Hindostan. # What 
Mr. Moorcroft obtained by the exchange we have never rightly 
heard : all we know about the matter is, that Mr. Coleman died 
* Could and would any kind reader of our Journal give us some biograph- 
ical account of a man so eminent in his day, and at all hands admitted to 
be so talented, as Mr. Moorcroft, it would be doing an act of great justice 
to his memory, as well as filling up a gap in veterinary history. 
VOL. XVI. 4 R 
