The PREFACE. 



we have all the Refufe of phyfical Authors; and mofl: 

 Books that are at this Day extant upon the Subject, 

 have been form'd upon the Writings of thofe Perfons ; 

 fo that the Cure of Horfes feems to be but very litde 

 underftood, notwithftanding all the Care and Pains 

 that has been taken to perfed: it. 



Solleyfell was fo fenfible of this, and of the bad 

 Cufloms which had obtained among the Farriers of 

 France in his time, that it put him upon a more dili- 

 gent Search into the Bufinefs, by confulting the beft 

 Authors of Phyfick and Surgery, as himfelf takes no- 

 tice, whereby he has indeed not only deliver'd a more 

 fafe and regular Pradlice, than any that went before 

 him, but has alfo introduc'd Methods altogether new, 

 with a great Variety of Medicines, which before had 

 never taken Place in the Difeafes of Horfes : But 

 yet, for all this, he was himfelf in fedled with many 

 of the Errors of his Predeceflbrs : for he is fo fcrupu- 

 lous as to Times and Seafons, and fo much ty'd up 

 to Cuftom, that it even renders his Methods very im- 

 pradlicable in many Circumftances, and as he was not 

 rightly acquainted with iht Am??ialO economy^ he has 

 accounted for many of the Difeafes, not from the 

 true Mechanifm of the Body of a Horfe, but in a 

 fpeculative and abftraded Way ; which is fo far 

 from leading any one into the Nature and Caufe of 

 Difeafes, that it muft rather bewilder his Pupils, and 

 bring them farther into the dark. 



Nor are thefe the only things wherein that Author 

 is blameable : but if we examine into his Method 

 of Cure, it is fo im.perfedl and perplex'd in many 

 Places, by frequent Digreflions, that a Man muft be 

 well acquainted with the Subjecft, or at more than 

 ordinary Pains to reap any great Advantage from it: 

 And as to his Medicines, tho' many of them are, no 

 doubt, extraordinary good, and very well adapted to 

 their feveral Intentions ; yet it is very plain, he has 

 inferted a Number of others, with long and tedious 

 A 3 En.^ 



