1806] POD

CRITICAL CATALOGUE.

Anatomical Reflections on the Form of Animals, and the New Opinions of Beury Cline, Esq. Surgeon. By John Hunt, Author of Historical Surgery; and Salutary Cautions respecting the Gout, 5s. Phillips. 1806.

HE Author of this miſſive ſets o and concludes in a great ſtyle. Doubtleſs he modeßly predicates that he has aed up to his motto— Scribendìi rect, sapere estè et principbium et fons. In his P. S. he warns the ſubſcribers of an important change he thought neceſlary to make in the title of his work; namely, to change Spe- culations to RefleRions; and to reduce its intended quarto Ze, ra- ther than incur the hazard of anv delay: nor are promiſes ſpared, in caſe another edition ſhould be demanded by the public eagerneſs for inſtru&ion. Thé nature and intent of this traQ will be, in part, perceived by the reader from its title. It is to controvert the ſpeculative opi- nions of Mr. Cline'the Anatomift, on the form of our domeſtic ani- mals and the principles of breeding. For our opinion of Mr. Cline?s qualifications in that line, we refer our readers to page 132 of our ſeventy- ninth Number. However, Mr. Cline?s publication has well anſwered che purpoſe of the preſent author. Mr. Hunt has made the proper giants in order to Kill them; for whoever heard, or where did he heaf, of the great expectations formed of the exten- ſive influence of Mr. Cline’s publication, and of the new æra which it was to eſtabliſh in the annals of agriculture? What man of ex- perience, theoretic and pralical, and thence competent to the ſub- je, could find ought of novelty in Mc. Cline?s ſpeculations, or zof find, that Mr. Cline could poſſibly know little or nothing of the mat- ter? That which completes the jeſt, is, the ſel(-ſame treaſure will be found in the pages of Mr. Cline’s redoubtable antagoniſt.— When Greek meets Greek then comes the tug.—The preſent au- thor aſſúmes no little from his actual reſidence in Leiceſterſhire, in the very centre and hotbed of cattle improvement, and from his conſequent opportunities of aſſociating and converſing with ſome of the firſt genii of the age, in that line; a certificate of equal validity with that which a hop-merchant or dancing-maſter might adduce, of his anatomical abilities, from his vicinity to Thomas's and Guy?s, and his habits of a morning lounge, or evening glaſs, with the PU- pils and surgeons of thoſe hoſpitals. However, Mr. Hunt preſents us with a far more deciſive and ſatisfa@ory certificate, in moſt of the Pages of his book; videlicit, of a total unacquaintedneſs, theo- retical or practical, with the ſubjeR of cattle, of the illuſtrations and advances already madé, on which, he-.ſceemst6 be unaware. The ſum of his veterinary knowledge appears to confiſt in a repe- titio of the Bakewellian common piaces, and in panegyrics, richly deſerved indeed, on the memory of that phenomenon of our yeo- manry. We can pretend to augur far greater ſucceſs to this au!hor 1n another and more appropriate attempt which he announces; and Second Scries, Vol. 1.