X PREFACE. 



able sl^all occasionally appear with all possible de- 

 licacy, wishing to irritate^ as little as may be, the 

 feelings of any individual, whose want of cultiva- 

 tion not improvement must be considered a misfor^ 

 tune, and a crime; but in whose deficiency of pro- 

 fessional knowledge consists the danger which so 

 often occurs, and exposes him to that labyrinth of 

 perplexity^ that dilemma of distress, from which 

 no brilliant fertility of genius, no idea of the struc- 

 ture of parts, no corresponding knowledge of me- 

 dicines, or their effects, can possibly arise to extri- 

 cate him, whilst the sufl'ering animal (in perhaps the 

 most excruciating agonies) expires at the feet of 

 this '' learned judge /'jurij, and executioner. 



Experience juitifies the assertion^ that nine times 

 out often the complaint (if internal) remains a 

 matter of hypothesis and conjecture, without one 

 explanatory note, sentence, shrug, or ejaculation^ 

 by which we may be led to understand or discover 

 the cause: but as professional stupidity must be 

 defended, wc are at last told (with a systematic 

 simplicity and vacuity of countenance) '' the horse 

 is in a great deal of pain/* 



This first point being not without some difficulty 

 and seeming depth of thought) at length discovered, 

 the remedy is then to be obtained; and as^ in gene- 

 ral, cowards, once pushed on, become bold in pro-^ 

 portion to the danger, so, according to the exigency> 

 some powerful ^' Mandragora" of the '' Mattria 



