OBITUARY — M. HURTREL D’ARBOVAL. 
771 
enabled to give of Hurtrel d’Arboval, “so remarkable for the 
lucid maimer in which it is written, for the numerous and sci- 
entifically arranged facts which it contains, and for the conclusions 
to which it seems to have legitimately arrived, is one of the most 
precious legacies for which veterinary science is indebted to him.” 
From 1821 to 1825 he was engaged in contributing numerous 
articles respecting veterinary surgery and medicine to “The 
Abridged Dictionary of Medical Science.” It may be somewhat 
doubted, whether this employment had not, to a certain degree, an 
unfavourable influence on his future writings ; and whether his 
instructions, and his mode of illustration and reasoning, had not 
more reference to the arguments and facts of human physiology, 
than to those deductions which can alone be legitimately drawn 
from the peculiar structure and food and habits of the various ani- 
mals that come under the care of the veterinary surgeon. We 
confess that this has, in our minds, been a serious objection to many 
of the general physiological elucidations of Hurtrel d’Arboval. 
Carefully guarding our language, and the deductions which may 
be drawn from it, we confess that there are few things of which we 
have so much dread in the education of the veterinary pupil as 
these general systems of physiology, which are deemed by some 
persons to be so important. Every animal has a physiology of its 
own ; and it is only by that knowledge of its conformation and its 
functions which it should be the object and the duty of the medical 
attendant on that animal to acquire, that a useful and satisfactory 
practice can be grounded. 
But we are somewhat antedating one of the noblest labours of 
Hurtrel d’Arboval. 
It was not until 1826 that the work which will ever be asso- 
ciated with his name, “ The Dictionary of Veterinary Medicine 
and Surgery,” made its appearance. “ Le Recueil de Medecine 
Veterinaire” first appeared in 1824. “ Le Journal Pratique” and 
“ Hurtrel d’Arboval’s Dictionary” in 1826, and the British “ Ve- 
terinarian” in 1828. We may assume these as the epochs of the 
revival of veterinary literature. 
The publication of such a work would have daunted the greater 
number of the best instructed veterinary surgeons. Works, of 
any value in veterinary medicine were, at that time, few and far 
between. Such as they were, they were contained in the annals 
of certain agricultural societies, or periodicals of general literature, 
or remained in their manuscript form, or were stored in the libra- 
ries of veterinary surgeons, or confined to the lectures of certain 
professors. To collect all these scattered, and, for the most part, 
unknown materials, — to make a proper selection from them, — to 
arrange them according to the relations which existed between 
