EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
650 
can be assigned why remedies act, or why they were resorted 
to. 
Chemicus. I admit that when a remedy is spoken of as a 
specific , the word simply means, that we know nothing of its 
action. But do you think that, as a general rule, we are 
likely to be directed to new remedies by the consideration of 
their family position ? 
Medicus . Not for the present, perhaps. But such will be 
the common rule, no doubt, when the medical profession 
shall, for some five and twenty years, make it their duty, in 
all civilised countries, to throw their whole force on the study 
of therapeutics, as has been done with such signal success 
for pathology during the twenty-five years that are just past. 
Physiologus. And meanwhile we are even already not with¬ 
out valuable instances of therapeutic theory successfully 
guiding practice in the choice of new remedies. Take chloro¬ 
form for an example. The properties of chloroform were not 
discovered by accident. Sulphuric ether having been ascer¬ 
tained to be an anaesthetic, all toxicological experience and 
theory led to the conclusion, that other ethers and etheroids 
would possess similar properties; and, accordingly, several 
such substances were found out, and chloroform at the head 
of them all for energy, safety, and facility of administration. 
Medicus. Another excellent illustration is the gradual pro¬ 
gress by which we have arrived at the most modern .—Monthly 
Journal of Medical Science , Oct. 1852. 
THE VETERINARIAN, NOVEMBER 1, 1852. 
Ne quid falsi dicere auaeat, ne quid veri non audeat.— Cicero. 
Dealers in horses, in the country as well as in London, 
have been, for some time past, growing pretty general and 
loud in their complaints, that good horses are becoming scarce 
and difficult to be met with; and though, for our own part, 
we do not feel disposed at all times to lend a willing ear to 
reports of this nature, from knowing that they are not un- 
frequently made to suit the purpose at the moment of a time 
bargain, yet on the present occasion we appear to have reasons 
