SECRETARY'S REPORT. 245 



rinary books in print, that he feels himself called upon to publish 

 another ; neither is it because he has any new discovery to state 

 or principle to expound, not hitherto known. Indeed, so thoroughly 

 investigated, and ably written on, has every department of this sci- 

 ence been, on the European side of the Atlantic, during the last 

 thirty years, that to propose anything in it as a novelty, sounds to 

 those familiar with the subject, as near akin to an attempt at impo- 

 sition ; and is only to be done after mature thought, and by those 

 who have exhausted all previous ascertained knowledge on the 

 point in question. But while this is expressive of the accuracy 

 and fullness of English veterinary literature generally ; there are 

 but few works in it, of that popular and compendious kind, that 

 suits the ordinary reader, and are at the same time, strictly true to 

 science and nature, so far as they go. The reason of this, perhaps, 

 is that where the science is best known, professional advice on 

 matters connected with it, is so easily obtained, that literai-y infor- 

 mation is but little asked for, people preferring in all difficulties, to 

 consult a living and present authority ; and consequently there is 

 but little encouragement for the honester and abler class of veteri- 

 nary surgeons, to write for the popular taste. Whether this be the 

 reason or not, such is the fact, that nearly all our late veterinary 

 works in which confidence can be placed, are either too voluminous 

 and strictly scientific, or too limited in their range of subjects, to 

 suit the general reader ; while the few that have attempted popu- 

 larity under such names as "modern farriers" and "improved 

 horse-doctors " are but hashed up revivals of such things published 

 perhaps fifty or a hundred years ago, when men fancied they could 

 charm disease by spells and incantations ; and consulted the signs 

 and planets on the gathering of an herb, or the performance of an 

 operation. 



Of the few reliable English books of a popular kind, that have 

 been published about the horse since veterinary surgery has been 

 recognized as a science, none are suitable in their details to the 

 conditions of American horse management. The difference of breeds, 

 climate, feeding, and general treatment, between the two countries 

 is such, that although the principles may be sound, and their appli- 

 cation pertinent in the circumstances for which they were written, 

 their aptness ceases, on bringing them across the Atlantic ; and a 

 reference to them for the treatment of disease, unless guided by a 

 knowledge of the first principles of the science, is more likely to 

 bewilder, than enlighten. 



While this applies to even the best veterinary books written and 

 published in England, it does so still more, to those that have been 

 issued in America. Were it not a fact patent to observation, it 

 would hardly be credited, that an intelligent and literary people 

 like that of the United States, and loving horses as they do, have 

 yet the first step to take, for placing veterinary^surgery in the posi- 

 tion of an art and science in their country. But so it is, and a 

 veterinary literature adapted to the wants and circumstances of the 

 western continent, has yet to be written. This is said in no dis- 

 paraging spirit, but is simply expressive of the little that has yet 



