166 
ARMY VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 
tion, it amounts to not one jot more than the regimental general 
register of the horses does, a book which is kept in every regi¬ 
mental orderly room in the service. 
The second part of the “register of diseased horses’’ consists- 
of (to use its own language) “ A half-yearly return of sick and 
lame horses, belonging to the - regiment of -; with a de¬ 
scription of their diseases” 
To read this plausible superscription, a person might be led to 
suppose that herein was all the information supplied, of the absence 
of which we have been so loudly complaining. “ With a descrip¬ 
tion of their diseases,” certainly looks mightily like reclaiming 
the character of the “register.” But, alas! this all turns out to 
be delusive: it proves to be nothing more than an abstract (with¬ 
out any additional particulars ) of what stands in the former divi¬ 
sion or diary of the register. For example, it presents a series of 
spaced columns, ten in number, headed as follows— diseases, 
admitted, cured , relieved, incurable, under cure, died, destroyed, 
sold, remarks. The information the “half yearly returns” conveys 
is, therefore, this—that twenty horses were admitted on account 
of having catarrh (or any other complaint or lameness); that so 
many out of the number were cured; so many relieved ; so many 
deemed or proved incurable; so many remaining under cure; so 
many died; so many destroyed; and so many sold; and all this 
within the prescribed space of one half-year. The whole account, 
therefore, as I said before, amounts to naught but a summary in 
round numbers of what has already been, after the same laconic 
and uninteresting manner, entered in the former part of the book— 
the diary. To call such a “ description of the diseases of the 
horses” is absurd: it may be denominated a numerical abstract 
of what has gone before; but it affords not one tittle more of 
information, or, in other words, is equally valueless for any 
medical purpose. 
The most extraordinary part of this learned specimen of re¬ 
gister-manufacturing is yet to come, however : it consists of a 
nosological arrangement, which, for lucidity and comprehensive¬ 
ness, may vie with any thing but the first effort of the youngest 
pupil at the Veterinary College. We imagine it may be this mi¬ 
litary system of riosology which embraces the “ description of 
diseases” set forth in the title of the “ Return.” At all events, 
it is a glorious achievement ! The “ Order” (for the diseases 
are all set down in order, be it noted, i. e. one after the otherj — 
the Order, we repeat, commences with 
Grease, 
and then comes—O, happy thought!— 
