iV PREFACE. 



Fosse, at the request of another bookseller, Mr. Badcock, 

 of Paternoster-row. I claim no credit for that performance, 

 and have already stated my present opinion of its degree 

 of usefulness, atpao;es 133 and 135. Proceeding with my 

 *' literary history," I may here add, that a few communi- 

 cations in the (old) Sporting; Magazines,* to the Monthly 

 Magazine,! to the Weekly Dispatch newspaper, and other 

 such publications, on topics connected with animal medi- 

 cine, preceded the essays on the structure of the horse, 

 which comprise the first book of this volume, and found 

 place in a newer and much more brilliant publication. An 

 accumulation of materials for these pages lay by me, with a 

 i.itent hope of publication, when the mammon of a '^ ten 

 pound prize," for their insertion in the Annals of Sport- 

 ing, and some cheering commendations that attended the 

 appearance of those essays, from time to time, induced me 

 to finish the design of a complete pocket manual for owners, 

 grooms and aspirants after the knowledge of horse-medi- 

 cine, of every degree. 



Like all other practitioners of the old school, or rathei 

 no school, my late father had long amassed together and 

 preserved, in an immense and shapeless volume, entitled 

 his '' Receipts," all the alleged remedies recommended as 

 eligible and found good in every variety of case: I believe 

 lie may have tried the efficacy of each, though I am now 

 tolerably well convinced that some must have failed of com- 

 plete success. Yet was the manuscript preserved like a 

 family treasure; and destined to fill my pockets at some dis- 

 tant day, its contents were secluded from vulgar eyes, 

 though it contained notliing but prescriptions. As usual 

 with all similar accumulations, the proper remedies were 

 therein stated, without a word as to symptoms or those 

 anomalous cases that frequently baffle the utmost vskill, for 

 tlie practice of medicine in any of its departments is but an 

 imperfect science, even when we can ascertain the precise 

 ailment under which the patient labours. This necessary 

 preliminary is not always possible in veterinary practice 

 wp are more frequently baffled than assisted in our inqui- 

 ries. Notwithstanding all this, my revered parent sus- 



* For Nov':ml:)er and December, 1820, on " Fever in the foot," in refuta- 

 Uon of Mr. Cherry, in which was described the successful treatment of a na* 

 t»elonging to Mr. Bowley of Covent Garden. 



t January, 1821, &c. 



