284 REVIEW.-BRIDGEWATER TREATISES, NO. 9 . 
to which they are directed? It is an evil replete with mis- 
chievoQS consequences, that while the extension of general 
knowledge should be so much the aim of public exertion, the 
veterinary student is limited in his resources ; for the system of 
instruction pursued at the Veterinary College, even if it embraced 
all the objects which it was originally designed to embrace, viz. 
a competent knowledge of the structure and diseases of all our 
domesticated animals, would suit only the infant state of the 
art ; for at the present time, a more extensive grasp of know¬ 
ledge is necessary for its safe and successful practice. 
Every kind of information in literature, science, and the arts, 
may be turned to advantage in studying our profession. Without 
the assistance of mechanics, we are unable to determine the 
principle of muscular motion—without pneumatics, we cannot 
explain the beautiful process of respiration, and the physiological 
results of this function. Without optics, we cannot explain the 
operation of the humours of the eye on the rays of light in their 
transmission through them—and without acoustics, we should 
be ignorant of the manner in which sound is conveyed to the 
sensible expansion of the auditory nerve. To those students, 
then, who wish to acquire a competent knowledge of mechanics, 
pneumatics, optics, acoustics, and other branches of natural 
philosophy that are justly considered as the auxiliary sciences 
to the study of medicine, inasmuch as they elucidate certain 
phenomena in the animal economy, we recommend Dr. Roget’s 
Treatise. 
The limits of our Review will be necessarily confined, as on a 
former occasion, to a single part of this interesting work; and 
we have therefore selected the “ sensorial functions.’' The 
author has divided this portion of his work into eight different 
chapters, 1 on sensation, 2 touch, 3 taste, 4 smell, 5 hearing, 
6 vision, 7 perception, 8th and lastly, on the comparative phy¬ 
siology of the nervous system. 
Sensation. 
“The intentions of the Deity in the creation of the animal 
kingdom, as far as we are competent to discern or comprehend 
them, are referrible to the following classes of objects:—The 
frst relates to the individual welfare of the animal, embracing 
the whole sphere of its sensitive existence, and the means of 
maintaining the vitality upon which that existence is dependent. 
The secoiid comprises the provisions that have been made for 
repairing the chasms resulting, in the present circumstances of 
the globe, from the continual destruction of life, by ensuring the 
multiplication of the species, and the continuity of the race to 
