EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 477 
find that the characters we have mentioned above will be found 
generally applicable. 
Finally, it would seem, from recent investigations, that we do, 
however, possess one absolute distinctive character between the 
two kingdoms, and that this consists in the power which plants 
possess of secreting starch, for at present starch is unknown in the 
animal kingdom. Hence, should future experiments confirm this 
fact (and there appears no reason to doubt it), we shall be readily 
able to ascertain the vegetable or animal nature of any doubtful 
body; and by this test, namely, the presence of starch in their in¬ 
terior, the nature of the true corallines, and a number of other 
doubtful bodies, have been already ascertained, and found to be¬ 
long to the vegetable kingdom. 
Pharmaceutical Journal. 
THE VETERINARIAN, AUGUST 1, 1849. 
Nequid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat.—C icero. 
For some years past influenza has not been so extensively pre¬ 
valent among horses as it has during the months of June and July 
of the present year. In the metropolis it set in with the month of 
June; in the provinces it appears to have been later in making its 
appearance. At the time we are writing, though diminished we 
believe in its numbers of sufferers, it still prevails. During the 
winter just passed there had been heard some little murmuring 
among veterinarians in general about slackness of business; for the 
last two months, however, we will venture to affirm, few of our 
professional brethren have had over-much time to discuss their 
after-dinner bottles. 
We cannot say the influenza of the summer of 1849 has proved 
so mild as we have seen influenza, equally prevalent, of former 
years, and yet we cannot complain of its fatality : on the contrary, 
indeed, when the cases have been placed early under proper treat¬ 
ment, fatal occurrences have been but rare. As on similar occasions 
in former years, the five-year-old horse has been the especial sub¬ 
ject of the disease; and though many of younger years have been 
attacked, few older seem to have had the complaint. As in former 
VOL. XXII. 3 R 
