TREFACE. Xlll 



taken to render as plain and familiar as possible ar 

 subject that has, through almost every dissertation, 

 been obscured by the mist of ignorance and mask 

 o^ misery, it is anxiously to be desired in future, 

 that every gentlemccn who has occasion to elucidate 

 or illustrate his own understanding by calling to 

 his assistance any of the learned tribe before de- 

 scribed, so remarkable for their extent of commu- 

 nication, will (previous to their administration of 

 medicine) require an explanatory prelude, with 

 satisfactory information upon what operations they 

 frame their expectations of relief and success ; 

 with the very necessary and additional recommen- 

 dation, to be particularly careful to obtain their 

 medicines from Dispensaries of repute, where the 

 proprietor is reported or supposed to have formed a 

 fair^ JionouraUe, and equitable contract with eino- 

 lument and reputation. 



And this caution is rendered more immediately 

 worthy consideration, by the multiplicity of spe- 

 cious advertisements so constantly held forth to 

 promote the lucrative sale of innumerable balls, 

 powders, and passes, individually infallible for every 

 disorder to which the horse is incident. But what 

 renders the circumstance still more extraordinary, is 

 their being prescribed and prepared, by those very 

 tnetropolitan practitioners in medicine, whose eques- 

 trian possessions never amounted to a single steed ; 

 whose journeys or unexperimental practice never 



