Introduc. not, they should apply themselves to the study of the tion. more general parts of the body, both of the human and animal; the latter, I hope, they may attain by the following sheets. They may direct the collar-maker, huntsman, or tanner, to cut up their dead horses in their presence. They may study physiology in a plea sant and interesting manner, from the ingenious work on this subject by Mr Saumarez. The lighter parts of the veterinary art may be acquired with pleasure, from the elegant publication of Mr Richard Lawrence of Birmingham; and a course of chemistry will amply reward them for their pains in acquiring it.

"A good surgeon has travelled three-fourths of the road towards making a good veterinarian, but he must diligently travel the remainder to arrive at excellence. He must by no means sit down contented with the analogy between the human and brute; which, if he does, will lead him into very great error; for though this analogy is in some cases very striking, yet there are others in which the similarity fails, and he is left to act upon other principles. Hence in those diseases that are conquered or mitigated by vomiting in the human; in the horse he must pursue another mode of treatment. In acute diseases removed by purging in the human, his attempts on the horse would probably fail; as before the effects were produced, the animal might be past relief. It must be remembered that the operations of medicines are very different in the one, and the other. It is not sufficient that a surgeon has an intimate acquaintance with the human frame; he must be equally conversant with the animal he treats, or he will treat in vain ; particularly those diseases originating in a peculiarity of form from the human, as all the diseases of the feet. He should make himself particularly conversant with the specific diseases of the horse, which bear no analogy to any thing in the human body; as farcy, glanders, strangles, grease, &c. From the great strength of the arterial system, he must ever be aware how prone the diseases of the horse are to a rapid termination, and hence that his treatment must be decisive and energetic; therefore, in all cases, he must be very attentive to diagnostics. But what will much embarrass a surgeon in practising the veterinary art, will be a want of knowledge of the general usages, nomenclature, and idiom, if I may so express it, among grooms and farriers; without an acquaintance with which, these people at once detect and despise the practitioner. It should be the business therefore of the surgeon, with his other acquisitions, to learn their manners, and to make himself acquainted with their terms. The third class of persons, either farriers already practising, or persons intending to practise, will easily gain that. When it is in their power, I would advise their taking the advantage of the veterinary college; but when they cannot, I would recommend the prosecution of their studies in a regular manner. Begin by first reading some general description of the human body, such as Symond's Anatomy, or the anatomical part of the present work, carefully; let them pay attention to the functions and uses of the parts, particularly where the same uses are brought about by a variation in structure; this enlarges the mind, and prepares it to receive the benefits of dissection, which should now be proceeded to. Any small animal may be first dissected, to enable the learner to use his instruments properly. He may then proceed to dissect the horse with some

tion.

authorities by him, which will assist him at first to make Introducout parts, but too scrupulous an attention to numerous descriptions will only bewilder. The necessary instruc tions for dissection, and the preservation of parts, may be gained, by a recourse to Poole's Anatomical Instructor, which is professedly written to instruct the pupil in these particulars. When he is well acquainted with the appearance of the animal in health, he should take every opportunity of examining diseased appearances, which are seldom wanting at the tan-yard or the kennel. He should now make himself acquainted more intimately with physiology, for which purpose he may read Haller's works; there is at present a translation of Cuvier's Treatise on Comparative Anatomy, which he may likewise avail himself of. When he has become acquainted with pathology, as at present received, he may peruse the older authors on farriery; to this should succeed a knowledge in chemistry, preceded by an acquaintance with the materia medica; the proper works for which he may see by a reference to that article, and *Blaine's nothing will now be wanting, but experience and prac- vol. i tice to perfect him *."

Outlines,

20

Since the establishment of a veterinary school in Bri- Means of tain, little is wanting to promote the progress and im-promoting a provement of the veterinary art, as far as relates to the knowledge of farriery. diseases of horses. But the art, with respect to the medical treatment of other animals, is still in the most deplorable state of imperfection. Proposals have been made for improving cattle medicine; and among these we think the following of Mr John Lawrence, entitled to attention; though, probably the proposer's list of works may be much improved and enlarged, by refer ring to the account of authors which will be immediately given.

21

Mr Lawrence's proposal is simply," that the affair of Mr Lawproviding the country with regular-bred surgeons, for rence's prothe practice of cattle medicine, be immediately under-posal, taken by the agricultural societies; at least, that the experiment be made by some of the most considerable, each society engaging a gentleman of that description, at a sufficient and respectable annual stipend. The contract may run in such form, that should the surgeon's annual emolument from practice some short of the stipulated sum, the deficiency should annually be made. up by his patrons the society. No person to be engaged on any pretence, but who shall have received the usual education of a surgeon, and have attended the hospitals the usual length of time. A selection of Veterinary text-books to be made, and the books purchased for the use of the surgeon, but to remain the property of the society. This may consist of Gibson's last edition, two vols. Bracken, Bartlett, Osmer, Layard, with our late writers; and Lafosse and Bourgelat from the French, with whatever may have been published since their time, by authority of the French veterinary schools. All the members of the society and their connections, as far as their influence may extend, to entrust the care of their diseased animals to the surgeon appointed, at a fair and liberal charge for his attendance and medicines. The surgeon to keep a regular history of all the cases which shall come under his inspection, including the presumed causes and symptoms of the disease, with the probable methods of prevention, his mode of treatment, a particular detail of the medicines prescribed, their operation, with every relative and useful remark which may occur.

History.

* Law

rence on

Cattle.

22

A clear written copy of such veterinary transactions, to be delivered annually, and on a certain day, to the society, to remain at their disposal *.'

It is of considerable consequence for the practitioner to be informed of the rise and progress of the art which Importance he professes, and to be acquainted with the principal of being ac-authors that have written on the subject. We shall quainted here, therefore, give a brief sketch of the history of Farriery, with a concise view of the writings that have

with the history.

appeared from the earliest authentic records to the pre- History. sent time (1806).

Though we shall enumerate all the authors that have written professedly on this subject, who appear deserving of notice, we shall here characterize only the general treatises, reserving our remarks on such works as have appeared on individual diseases, &c. to that part of our treatise, in which we shall consider these subjects.

23

Early hiTHE early history of farriery, as of every other art story of the and science, is involved in great obscurity. We shall art very ob- not attempt to penetrate the cloud that hangs over the ancient state of the art, or to supply the want of facts, by conjectures, which, however rational, can lead to no certain or useful conclusions.

scure.

24 Columella.

25

Celsus.

26

Vegetius.

27

Ruelli's

There seems no doubt that in the time of Hippo crates, and probably long before, the medical practi tioner exercised his office in favour of the domestic animals, as well as of man; and Galen seems to have been well skilled in the knowledge and treatment of some of the diseases of animals.

Perhaps the earliest authentic writings on the subject of the veterinary art, now extant, are to be found in the works of Columella, the celebrated Roman author on husbandry, who, in his work De Re Rustica, has given many sensible directions for the management of horses and cattle. Columella_lived about the second century, under the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, or, as some say, of Claudius Cæsar.

It is understood that Celsus, the elegant imitator of Hippocrates, who lived some time before Columella, wrote much on the diseases of animals; but none of his writings on this subject have survived the general wreck of science and literature that accompanied the fall of the Roman empire.

We have no certain accounts of any author who wrote expressly on this subject earlier than Vegetius, who flourished, as is supposed, some time in the fourth century, and probably during the reign of the emperor Valentinian the third. The work of Vegetius, De Arte Veterinaria, is still considered as extremely valuable, as it has handed down to us the only certain account of the opinions and practice of the early practitioners in this art. The body of the work appears to have been compiled from the most celebrated Greek writers on the subject. It is divided into four books; the prefaces or introductory chapters to which are written in very elegant language.

An edition of Vegetius was published at Basil, in 1574; and the work has been translated into several modern languages. Such of our readers as wish for a particular account of the contents of Vegetius's treatise, will find a copious analysis of it, in the third volume of M. Vitet's Medicine Veterinaire.

A collection of fragments of ancient writers on the collection. veterinary art, was made by Luellius, physician to Francis I. king of France. It was first published in Latin, in the year 1530; and afterwards, in 1637, the original Greek was published. The writers who con

tributed to this collection were chiefly Absyrtus, Eumelus, Hierocles, Petagonius, and Theomestus. Some part of this collection is tolerably good; but, on the whole, it appears to be a strange jumble of good, bad, and indifferent, collected without judgment, and ar ranged without taste.

28

It is said that Xenophon, who lived three or four Xenophon. hundred years before the Christian era, wrote a small treatise in twelve chapters, on the training, manage. ment, and external figure of horses; but, as he says little or nothing with respect to their diseases, he can. not properly be ranked among the writers on veterinary medicine.

༢༡ A blank of more than a thousand years now occurs Dark ages. in the history of farriery. During this long period of darkness, ignorance, and barbarity, the veterinary art, like most others, rather went back than advanced. During some part of this gloom, however, the art of shoeing horses with iron appears to have been invented; an art which seems to have contributed not a little to throw the management of this noble animal into the hands of a set of errant blockheads, who were now first called farriers. We cannot here enter on a discussion of the medical pretensions of these guardians of the health of horses. They have been amply commented on, by some of the best writers on the subject of farriery, as Gibson, Bracken, Lafosse, and particularly Mr John Lawrence, to whose useful and humane trea tise on horses we refer our readers for some very spirited remarks on the subject.

30

The first modern writer on farriery, whom we can Ruini. mention, is Carlo Ruini, an Italian, who, in 1618, published at Venice his Anatomia del Cavallo. This work, of which very few copies are now to be found, is embellished with many copperplates, which, for the time when they were engraved, are very elegant. It is said that many succeeding writers on the anatomy of the horse have been indebted to them for most of their figures.

31

We now come to a period at which the veterinary Progress ef art began to assume something of a scientific form, farriery in Many writers of eminence began to appear both in France. France and England, countries which have been the most distinguised for their attention to the management and diseases of domestic animals. As the French writers were the first who did any thing considerable towards the improvement of farriery, we shall trace the progress of the art in that country, before we examine the improvements it has received in England.

32

In 1698 Solleysel published his grand work," Le Solleyse! parfait

History. parfait Marechal," the complete Horseman, a work which gained its author a high reputation, and was long the only guide, as well in farriery as in the ma

33 Appear

nege.

M. Solleysel was principal riding-master in France, and this situation led him to pay much attention to the diseases of horses; and being a man of considerable abilities, and enlightened understanding, he saw the errors that prevailed in his time; and his genius and experience led him to expose and correct them. His practical observations and remarks, which it would be out of place to particularize in this early part of our article, in general merit considerable attention. His observations on the external figure of the horse, and of his blemishes and defects, are also very valuable. It is much to be regretted that this ingenious author had not studied the anatomy of the horse, as he would then have avoided many errors and much false reasoning, into which his ignorance of anatomy betrayed him. Solleysel's work passed through many editions, and was translated into most of the modern languages. A ver◄ sion of it into English was executed by Sir William Hope, one of his pupils, early in the 18th century.

The dreadful havock committed by the murrains or ance of the epidemic diseases among horned cattle, that ravaged murrain in Europe during the first half of the 18th century, atEurope. tracted the attention of medical men, and thus led the way to a greater improvement in the veterinary art, than it had ever before experienced. These epidemics were first described by two Italian physicians, Ramazzini, in a treatise De Contagione Epidemica; and Lancisi, physician to the pope, in a treatise De Bovina Peste. But the most celebrated works on the prevailing epidemic seem to have been written by the faculty in France. Among the first appeared a memoir by M. Hermant, physician to the king.

34 Sauvages.

35 Establishment of

In 1746 was published a memoir Sur la Maladie Epidemique des Boeufs du Vivarais, by the celebrated nosologist Sauvages.

About the middle of this century, the first steps were taken towards the establishment of schools for the pubveterinary lic instruction of practitioners in farriery. One of the most celebrated of these was the veterinary college of Lyons.

schools.

36 Bourgelat.

Over this institution presided the famous Bourgelat, a name that will be ever respectable in the history of farriery. Besides his office of professor at Lyons, he was inspector general of the veterinary schools in France; commissary general to the royal stables; honorary member of the Royal Academy of Paris, and member of the Royal Academy of Berlin. M. Bourgelat was a voluminous writer, and most of his works are still in much repute. In 1752, he published Elemens d'Hippiatrique, "Elements of Farriery," in 3 vols. The first volume is divided into eight chapters, comprehending the knowledge of the horse, as far as regards his external form. The first chapter treats of the denomination and division of the parts that compose the body of this animal; the second treats of the beauties and defects of the fore part of the horse, or what the French writers call l'Avant Main; the third treats of the beauties and defects of the several parts of the body; the fourth of the beauties and defects of the hind part of the horse, or l'Arriere Main; the fifth, of the different marks of horses; the sixth of the means

of ascertaining the age of horses; the seventh, of the History. geometrical proportions of the horse; and the eighth, of shoeing.

The second volume describes the anatomy of the horse, as far as relates to the bones, the integuments, the muscles, and blood vessels; and the third volume concludes the anatomy with a description of the parts that compose the head and chest.

In 1765, M. Bourgelat's materia medica, for the use of the veterinary pupils, came out. Soon after was published his Elementary Treatise on the Anatomy of the Horse, which is the most complete work of the kind that has ever yet appeared. In 1766 he published his Elementary Botanical Demonstrations, for the use of the pupils of the veterinary college. He likewise gave to the world a treatise on bandages applicable to the horse. M. Bourgelat also furnished many of the best articles on farriery for the French ENCYCLOPEDIE.

37

About this time appeared a number of works on the Buffon and manege, and on natural history, particularly a work by Daubenton. M. de la Guerincere, entitled Ecole de Cavalerie, and the celebrated natural history by M. de Buffon and Daubenton; but as these works have little connection with the diseases of animals, which they mention only incidentally, we shall not here particularize their con

tents.

38 Contemporary with Bourgelat, and equal to him in Lafosse the celebrity, flourished Lafosse the Elder, a member of Elder. the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and farrier to the king of France. He made many discoveries, and introduced several valuable improvements in the art of farriery, particularly, an improved method of shoeing, and a treatise on the glanders. These were at first communicated in the form of memoirs to the French academy, and published in their annals. They were afterwards collected in 1754 into one volume, under the title of Observations et Decouvertes Faites sur des Chevaux; "Observations and Discoveries on Horses." We shall have occasion, in future parts of our article, to consider the merits of these memoirs, which were well received, and have contributed much to the advancement of farriery.

The elder Lafosse also wrote some of the articles on farriery in the ENCYCLOPEDIE.

39

He was soon followed by his son Lafosse the Lafosse the Younger, who occupied the same post as his father, Younger. and has acquired much reputation, by following his steps, and extending his improvements. He published in 1766, his Guide de Marechal; or "Farrier's Guide;" a work well known in this country, though it has never, we believe, appeared in an English dress. It is divided into five parts, treating, 1st, Of the means of ascertaining the age of horses, and a succinct enumeration of the several parts; 2d, Of the blunders and tricks of farriers; 3d, Of the internal diseases of the horse; 4th, Of the external diseases, and the most important operations; and, 5th, Of shoeing. This work is characterized by M. Vitet, as one of the most accurate, simplest, and most precise, that had ever appeared. The anatomical part of the work is short, but comprehensive, and is illustrated by some tolerably good plates. It appears to have been a sort of text-book to a course of lectures on farriery, which were afterwards, in 1772, published in a superb form, with 65 coloured plates, under the title of Cours de Hippiatrique; or "Course

ings, and a few English, that had happened on the sub- History. ject, from Vegetius to 1770.

of Farriery." This work is extremely scarce in Britain, where, according to Mr Blaine, there are only three copies of it; one of which belongs to the Medical Society of Woolwich; another is in the hands of a Mr Mathaisa, ci-devant pupil of the Veterinary College; and he believes Mr Morecroft has a third.

But the principal work of the younger Lafosse is his Dictionaire d'Hippiatrique, in four volumes, which is little known in this country, and which we have not Mr Blaine calls it "the best practical system of farriery that had ever appeared."

seen.

In 1803 was published an abridgement of M. Lafosse's Guide, of which an English translation has lately appeared under the title of The Veterinarian's Pocket Manual. It is a useful little book, but it is a pity that the author or translator had not observed a more methodical arrangement.

Though, for the sake of uniformity, we have mentioned the younger Lafosse immediately after his father; there were many works published in France between the Memoirs and the Guide.

In 1755, M. Garfault published his Nouveau parfait Marechal, an improvement on the Parfait Marechal of Solleysel. It is divided into seven treatises; on the Conformation of the Horse; on Haras, or on the Method of Breeding; on Stables; on the Diseases of Horses; on Operations; on Shoeing; and on Horse Medicines. This work is not without defects, but, for the most part, it is very good, and by no means deserves the brief character given of it by Mr Blaine in his History of the Veterinary Art, that it "does not seem to merit any distinction in this place."

The articles on farriery in the Encyclopedie that had been written by Bourgelat and Genson, called forth a work from M. Ronden, senior, farrier to the larger stables of the king; who, in 1759, published Observations sur les Articles de l'Encyclopedie concernant la Marechallerie. They appear to be ingenious, and contain much practical information.

In 1763 there appeared at Paris a work on agriculture in two volumes 4to, entitled, La Nouvelle Maison Rustique, which contains much useful matter respecting the breeding, management, and diseases of domestic animals, as well fowls as quadrupeds.

The contagious epidemics among horned cattle still appeared occasionally in France and other parts of Europe; and many essays were written on them by various physicians, particularly by M. Bovand of Besançon, in 1766; by M. Leclerc and M. Barbaret, of Paris, in the same year.

In 1768 Daubenton, the celebrated naturalist, already mentioned, published a memoir on the mechanism of rumination in sheep; and in 1769, appeared a small volume entitled La Medicine des Bêtes a Laine; “the Medical Treatment of Sheep."

Between 1776 and 1782, M. Vitet, a physician at Lyons, published his Medicine Veterinaire, in 3 vols 8vo. of which the first contains a pretty full account of the anatomy of the horse and ox, with some judicious remarks on the beauties and defects of both, and on some of the more important operations to which they are exposed; the second treats of the diseases of horses, sheep, and cattle; and the third gives an account of the remedies employed in veterinary medicine; and ends with a copious analysis of most of the continental writVOL. VIII. Part II.

M. Vitet's work is, for the most part, a compilation from the best writers who have gone before him; but as he had read much, and appears to have selected with judgment, his book is one of those which may be consulted with advantage. We know that it bears a high character in France, and is often quoted with respect. We are therefore disposed to rate it at a higher value than a late writer has done; and are inclined to suspect that some of those who affect to think lightly of it are indebted to it for much more than the "names of many of those who have written on this subject."

44

Much about this time, but in what precise year we Rozier. cannot say, the abbé Rozier, well known as the editor of the early volumes of the Journal de Physique, published his Cours d'Agriculture et de Medicine Veterinaire; a work of much reputation in France, but, we believe, little known on this side the water.

45

Another work appeared about this time on the epi- Paulet. demics among cattle, entitled Recherches Historiques et Physiques sur les Maladies Epizootiques; "Historical" and Philosophical Researches respecting Epizootic Diseases," by M. Paulet. It contains an abridgement of almost all that had been written on the subject, and is particularly valuable for the account of the morbid appearances that were discovered on dissection.

We shall finish our account of French writers in the words of Mr Blaine.

46

"After the death of Bourgelat and Lafosse, we hear Hazard of no character of any great eminence for some years; and Cha but it appears, that since the revolution, the subject has bert. again been more diligently studied, and the names of Chabert and Huzard stand forward. Soon after, or about the time above alluded to, there appeared a considerable work, called, The Rational Dictionary of Medicine, Surgery, and Farriery, in six volumes; and very soon after, a Veterinary Dictionary, by Buchon; but it has no merit superior to that of Lafosse. In 1787, M. Chabert published a Treatise on the Mange of Horses; since which he has likewise published upon the peripneumonia of black cattle. There has also appeared an Essay on the Grease of Horses, which gained the prize medal of the society for the promoting the health of animals; to which is joined a report on thick wind and on broken wind; but we are not aware who is the author. In 1788, there came out a treatise on the haras, with the method of shoeing, cutting, and all the lesser operations, translated from the Spanish of Hartmann, by Huzard. Likewise "Instructions and Observations on Domestic Animals," with remarks on the breeding, rearing, buying and selling; with an analysis of previous authors, by Chabert, Handrin, and Huzard. The above authors have also published, conjointly, a Veterinary Almanack, containing the history and progress of animal medicine, since the establishment of the veterinary schools. In 1791, M. Lampagieu Lapole, veterinary surgeon, published observations on the health of the animals of St Domingo, dedicated to the veterinary college at Alfort. In 1797, M. Chabert and Blaine's M. Huzard published, by order of government, a treatise Outlines, on ascertaining the existence of the glanders, the means of preventing it, and destroying the infection. *" Progress of Before we detail what has been done in Britain for farriery oa the advancement of the art, we must take a cursory the conti3 H

view

vol. i. 47

nent.

In 1730, Goelicke, a German, published a treatise in 4to, De Lue Contagiosa Bovium; "On the Contagious Disease of Cattle;" in which the symptoms of the murrain that raged in Flanders about that time are well described; and there are added the appearances on dis

section.

In 1734, appeared at the Hague a work entitled La parfaite Connoissance des Chevaux; "The Complete Knowledge of Horses;" by John Saunier, and Gaspard his son. The latter boasts of this work, that it was drawn up from the lectures of his father, an experienced man; and that it contains the result of numerous experiments on subjects of every description, and diseases of every species; that it is the labour of the life of two men, the offspring of their continual application and study. After all their boasting, however, the work of Mynheers Saunier is little worth.

In 1745. and 1746, appeared two other treatises on the epidemic of cattle by Mauchard and Ens. In 1749, the illustrious and indefatigable Linné published at Upsal his Pan Suecicus, in which there is little that relates to our subject, if we except a table of such plants as are eaten or refused by the domestic animals, which is curious and useful.

Some time before 1756, Frederic Hastfer, a Swede, published Instructions for Improving the Breed of Sheep, which was in much repute, and was translated into French.

In 1762, M. Reynier of Lausanne published a treatise on a contagious inflammatory disorder that raged among horses and cattle, and which the Genevese called la louvet. This will be considered hereafter.

In the same year there appeared at Vienna a work on the epidemic of cattle by Dr Pleneiz; and in 1765 Mich. Sagard of the same city published a work on a contagious distemper that the year before attacked the cattle in the circle of Iglaw in Moravia; and was attended with an appearance of aphthous crusts in the mouth.

Of late veterinary medicine has been much cultivated in Spain, where the works of Hartmann are held in much esteem. In that country, it is said, a work on farriery in nine volumes has been lately published; but of this we know nothing.

We must not close our account of continental writers without mentioning the name of the illustrious Camper, whose works were lately collected and published at Paris. Besides a long description of the structure of the oranoutang, and some lesser essays on comparative anatomy, these volumes contain an elaborate history of the epizootic disease that raged among the cattle on the continent in the middle of last century, in the form of lectures. We shall speak of this work hereafter.

We have thus brought the history of this art on the continent, in a concise manner, down to the present time; and from it may be learned what improvements have originated there, and at what periods. It would appear, that when the science began to command attention, from the exertions of Francis the First, and Vegetius became studied, had it progressively improved in the degree it might be supposed to be placed by a conversance with this author, it would ere this have been more approximating to perfection: but instead of

proceeding on the rational system of Vegetius, it dwind- History, led again into ignorance of barbarity; and the recipes of manege-masters, and the operations of blacksmiths, were the only ostensible marks of its assistance. From this state the practitioner became in some degree roused by the improved system of Solleysel; but he could only combat present errors, he could not point the way to future improvement, for he was ignorant of the groundwork whereon to build it, i. e. the anatomy of the animal. This defect was only in a small degree supplied by the labours of Ruini, and in some measure farther assisted by the demonstrations of Bourgelat. Many of the remaining errors were combated by Lafosse with great advantage; and his experiments and discoveries on glanders, the rationality and improvements of his mode of shoeing, entitle him to great merit. Yet, though by these exertions, and by the establishment of veterinary seminaries, the art assumed a more regular and scientific form, its attainments were by no means adequate to its opportunities; which was almost wholly owing to an obstinate adherence to the humoral pathology, by which the treatment of internal and acute diseases continued inert and unsuccessful. Their prescriptions were filled with decoctions of simples, and they were utterly unacquainted with the medicinal virtues of the more active remedies in use among us. Under an opinion that the blood and humours were the constant seat of disease, they were continually washing them sweet with correctors; entirely ignorant or unmindful of the derangement of the solids, and of the connections between living blood and living vessels. Nor did this influence only their treatment of internal and acute diseases; but even of local and chronic affections hence their mode of treating farcy, grease, and other complaints of a similar nature, were equally inert, and all evinced an erroneous pathology. Upon a careful and unprejudiced review of the state of farriery among ourselves, and, on the continent of Europe, we are not inclined to think it had any advantages of moment at the beginning of the war in their favour ; though it must be allowed, we are indebted to them for many improvements, and for the first hints towards the establishment of a regular school of the art among Since the war, our means of communication are so few, that we are not aware of what is doing among our neighbours. But though farriery, as a branch of veterinary medicine here, has kept nearly equal pace with its continental improvements, I do not think (says Mr Blaine), the treatment of other animals, particularly of oxen, cows, and sheep, has been equally attended to; and, in this particular, I am disposed to think we are behind hand with them. Their severe visitations of the epizootic distemper have made them more atten- Blaine's tive to this branch of the art +."

us.

Outlines. 55

In taking a review of the history of farriery, or ve- Progress of terinary medicine in general, in our own country, it farriery in will be seen, that we are much longer in improving the Britain. art, and reducing it under a rational and scientific form, than our neighbours on the continent. Our earliest writers on the diseases of horses and cattle, were deplorably ignorant, not only of all principles of general medicine and sound practice, but even frequently of the common appearances of the diseases, 'which they professed to cure.

56 Our first writers on the treatment of the diseases of Blundehorses, ville.