MODERN FARRIER. f 



tion, and hence the treatment must be decisive and 

 energetic. 



2. History of the Art of Farriery. 



It is generally believed that Xenopbon, who lived 

 three or four hundred years before Christ, wrote a 

 small treatise on the figure and management of the 

 horse. Celsus, the elegant imitator of Hippocrates, 

 also wrote on the diseases of animals ; but the ear- 

 liest authentic writings on the subject are found in 

 Z)e Re Rustica, a work of the celebrated Columella, 

 who lived in the second century, under the reign of 

 the Roman emperor Tiberius. A compilation trom 

 the Greek writers on this subject also appeared from 

 the pen of Vegetius, who flourished in the fourth 

 century. 



After this, a blank of more than a thousand years 

 occurs in the history of farriery. During the dark 

 ages, this useful art, like most others, retrograded ; 

 but it was during this gloomy period, that the art 

 of shoeing horses with iron appears to have been in- 

 vented ; ' 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 arrant blockheads, 

 who were now first called farriers.' 



After the sixteenth century, the veterinary art 

 began to assume something of a scientific form ; and 

 many able writers began to appear both in France 

 and Germany, amongst whom the illustrious Cam- 

 per deserves particular notice. In England, the 

 duke of Newcastle, Blundeville, Markham, Barett, 

 Snape, and Gibson, contributed to throw some light 

 upon this useful art. The improvements of the 

 latter were ably extended by Dr. Bracken. Next 

 to this admired writer we may place Bartlett, Osmer, 

 and Clark, farrier to his majesty in Scotland. The 

 elegant work of Stubbs and lord Pembroke also de- 

 serves mention. Amongst modern writers, the most 



