REVIEW..— CATTLE PATHOLOGY. 
571 
cate no system. I have learned that the way to arrive at truth 
is to discard every exclusive theory. Truth is my object, and 
experience my guide. At all events, if I do not fully accomplish 
my object, I shall have traced out a path for others to traverse to 
its very end.” 
It would seem, indeed, as if this book were written for us in 
tjie present situation of veterinary affairs. We will avail our- 
selves of the advantage. The work of M. Gelle will contain the 
latest and the best founded opinions with regard to the diseases of 
cattle — the opinions of the Professor of that school which was 
founded for the express purpose of disseminating the knowledge 
of cattle-practice, and which the original school of Bourgelat had 
too much neglected. Our review of this work will be somewhat 
extended, but, we trust, not tedious. The Professor of Bovine 
Pathology in our school — whoever he may be — will thank us for 
it ; and the student will not be displeased at having the opportu- 
nity of comparing together the theory and the practice of the two 
schools. We are not answerable for any of the peculiar opinions 
of the Professor. Our object is to put the reader in possession of 
them, and leave him to draw his own comparison. The present 
portion of our review may be somewhat uninteresting, but it is 
important, as preparing for that which will follow. 
The Professor takes a rapid review of the opposite processes 
which are constantly carrying on in the living frame — that of assi- 
milation, including digestion, absorption, sanguification, circulation, 
secretion, and nutrition, and that of dissimilation, as transpiration 
pulmonary and cutaneous, the urinary separation and defecation. 
Of the proper balance of these health is the result — their disturb- 
ance is indicative or productive of disease. The practice of medicine 
consists in preserving the proper balance of these functions, in the 
discovery of every departure from them, in the remedy of the 
consequences of that departure, and the re-establishment of the 
proper and natural action of the various parts. For the admirable 
illustration of these points, and for much serious and important 
advice with regard to the prevailing habit of wildly theorizing 
about them, we refer to the work itself. Our concern is, the action 
and influence of every vital cause on the ox. One observation 
with regard to bleeding we must quote : — 
“ Bleeding has a salutary effect in the greater part of the dis- 
eases of cattle, doubtless on account of the peculiar development 
of the venous system in the animal, and particularly that of the 
vena porta, by reason of the immense quantity of blood which goes 
to his vast digestive organs, and which also explains the frequency 
of essential or secondary hepatitis in this animal. Notwithstand- 
ing, therefore, that bleeding will often be of the greatest utility in 
the diseases of the ox, not only to avoid or to arrest the progress 
