INTRODUCTION. 465 



the. weather, or they are gorged with food, denied a suffi- 

 cient quantity, or supplied with such as is unwholesome. 

 Here we learn the chief cause of their maladies. Learn 

 to prevent them, instead of undertaking the tedious, unsuit- 

 able, and hopeless task of learning to cure them. Of all 

 things let the proprietors of cattle renounce for ever the in- 

 sane folly of offering premiums for curing incurable dis- 

 eases, and the hope of providing medicines which, by a sort 

 of miraculous operation, will enable men to continue in 

 the habit of exposing their animals to the constant risk 

 of such diseases. I have no infallible recipes to offer. 

 On the contrary, I wish to impress my readers strongly 

 with the idea, that all infallible recipes are infallible 

 nonsense." 



We agree with Mr. White, that, " almost all the diseases 

 of cattle arise either from exposure to wet and cold weather, 

 from their food being of a bad quality, or deficient in quan- 

 tity, or from being changed too suddenly from poor, un- 

 wholesome keep to richer pasture. It is necessary to ob- 

 serve also, that the animal is more liable to be injured by 

 exposure to wet and cold, when previously enfeebled by bad 

 keep, old age, or any other cause, and particularly when 

 brought from milder and more sheltered situations. I have 

 scarcely met with a disease that is not attributed, by those 

 who have the care of cattle, to a chill ; and under this impres- 

 sion the most stimulating medicines are usually employed : 

 among which we generally find grains of paradise, ginger, 

 long pepper, and mustard, in large doses. It unfortunately 

 happens that the disorders arising from a chill are often of 

 an inflammatory nature, and require a very different treat- 

 ment. It must be granted, however, that cattle more fre- 

 quently require stimulating medicines than horses ; and that 

 bleeding is not so frequently necessary, nor is it carried to 



3o 



