68 REVIEW.

disease known to be contagious. I n this treatment the use of disinfectants ought to playa part, but not the chief part. To arrest the disease reliance must mainly be placed on the measures which have been found most trustworthy in the prophylaxis of the admittedly contagious diseases, that is to say, the strict isolation of every animal suspected of being already diseased. Unfortunately the practitioner is here confronted with a serious difficulty, namely, our present inability to diagnose the disease until the act of abortion is imminent, at which time the cow may already have infected some of her neighbours. But the hope may be indulged that if the disease is due to a bacterium, future investigation will bring into use improved methods of diagnosis.

Points of the Horse: A familiar treatise on equine conformation. By M. Horace Hayes, F.R.C.V.S. Second Edition. London: w. Thacker & Co., 1897.

IT is somewhat singular that until the appearance of the first edition of Captain Hayes' book on the subject four years ago, English literature contained no complete work on the external conformation of the horse. That there was a market ready for such a treatise was proved by the demand for the first edition, which was exhausted within six months. The author apparently resisted the temptation to issue as a second edition what would have been merely a reprint of the first, and preferred to spend some time in further study of the subject and in the accumulation of fresh material. On this decision both the author and the public are to be congratulated, for the present work is in several respects superior to its predecessor.

In gauging the merits of Captain Hayes' treatise, one is naturally led to compare it with Goubaux and Barrier's masterly French work on "L'Exterieur du Cheval," which, by the way, an American translation has made available for English readers. In some respects the comparison i~ favourable to the one, and in some to the other. The English work is greatly superior in respect of its illustrations, of which there are upwards of four hundred, the majority of them being faithful reproductions of photographs. As regards the text of the two books, the difference may be conveyed in a general way by saying that the French authors are more scientific, perhaps in some points more accurate, while the English work treats of things in a more popular, or, as the author would probably prefer to say, a more" practical" manner. But, putting comparisons aside, we may certainly say that Captain Hayes has pro­duced a work that is eminently readable, and one which veterinary surgeons and students will find it worth their while to possess. It will not make every reader of it a good judge of a horse, but it contains information valuable even for those who are already good judges of that animal. In conclusion, it ought to be said that the publishers' share of the work is deserving of the highest commendation.