30 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



character of those who presumed,' without the necessary qualifi 

 cations, to practise the art, that the English husbandmen refused 

 to put their shoulders to the wheel, and receive the offered boon. 

 That country had been visited by diseases of a pestilential type, 

 which had made sad havoc among the stock, and had swept them 

 from the green hills and verdant valleys, as by the blast of a tor- 

 nado. Their horses, too, did not escape the arm of the destroyer ; 

 they were constantly suffering and dying from insidious forms 

 of disease, the history and characters of which were almost 

 unknown. This state of things, together with the unfortunate 

 occurrence that there were no legitimate practitioners, had opened 

 a wide field for adventurers and quacks, whose barbarous sys- 

 tem of medication, probably, was the cause of many deaths. 

 These practitioners, in lieu of better, were taken as standards, 

 and the people had, to a great extent, formed an estimate of the 

 value of this art in exact ratio to the talents of the village farrier, 

 and in proportion to the success that attended his labors. This 

 is precisely the state of affairs in America. 



St. Bel gives us another reason for his failure, but it amounts 

 to nearly the same thing. He says, " The opulence of England 

 offered a wide field for impostors of foreign origin, by whom the 

 nation was daily imposed on, and repeated experience of such 

 impositions naturally excited distrust towards foreigners in gen- 

 eral ; and because honesty of views was not written on his face, 

 patience and perseverance became his only resources." 



At this stage of affairs St. Bel was fortunate enough to make 

 the acquaintance of a gentleman who had a decided taste for the 

 art, and who eagerly responded to the views of the professor, 

 and bade him not despair of ultimate success ; assuring him that 

 by setting the matter in its right light before the people he would 

 soon obtain all he desired. This assurance inspired St. Bel with 

 new hopes, and he immediately issued a pamphlet of some twenty- 

 eight pages, entitled, Plan for establishing an Institution to 

 cultivate and teach the Veterinary Art. This pamphlet was 

 well received, and several agricultural societies paid the writer 

 handsome compliments, and conferred on him honorary distinction. 



During the year 1790, several meetings took place between the 

 members of agricultural societies and gentlemen favorable to the 



