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474 
Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non.—H ok 
The Horse in all his varieties and Uses ; his Breeding, Rearing , 
and Management , ichether in labour or rest; with Rules 
occasionally interspersed for his Preservation from Disease. By 
John Lawrence. 12mo, p. 315. Longman and Co. 
Although John Lawrence is no veterinary surgeon, and 
when he meddled with that which he did not understand now and 
then got himself into sad scrapes, yet almost the whole of his life, 
protracted beyond the usual period, has been spent among horses. 
He has always loved the horse. His attachment to that noble 
animal/ always pleasing, sometimes wore an air of Quixotism, 
(we forgive him that, and like him the better for it) and he 
gradually acquired a great deal of useful knowledge respecting 
the breeding, form, qualities, and treatment of the horse, &c. In 
his multifarious writings he has imparted much of that know¬ 
ledge in a style sometimes quaint, often witty, and, when he was 
pleading the cause of this ill-used quadruped, singularly impres¬ 
sive. The volume before us seems designed to be his last legacy : 
it contains the cream and marrow of many a preceding volume; 
and we can confidently recommend it to the horseman, as an 
amusing as well as instructive work ; while the veterinary surgeon 
will apply to it in the moment of relaxation, and, if it be not his 
own fault, derive from it considerable information. 
No slight recommendation of the work, at least to us, who have 
but little time to spare, is a table of contents spreading over no 
less than fifteen pages, and enabling us, without trouble, to cull 
according to our palate or the whim of the moment, the anec¬ 
dote or the lecture, the grave or the gay. 
The author begins with a short but amusing history of the 
English horse, and all its varieties. He then gives a valuable, 
we should almost say*a scientific, account of breeding.' We par¬ 
ticularly thank him for one remark. It unfolds the cause of the 
rapid deterioration of half and three-parts-bred horses. “ The 
radical error in our general breeding system is, that the form and 
size of the stallion alone is particularly attended to, whilst the 
form and aptitude of the mare is little considered .” Mr. Castley 
has placed this in a most convincing point of view in his excellent 
paper in our last number. 
On hereditary diseases and qualities his remarks deserve 
notice. 
