16 EARLY HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 



tills might in pavt arise from the custom of the Romans to castrate all the 

 horses that were employed in mercantile and agricaltural pursuits. The 

 horse, however, was not degraded by the operation or the labour, but 

 rather he was made to occupy the situation for which nature designed him ; 

 and from this time, and gradually over every part of Europe, he has 

 become one of the most useful of the servants of man. 



To the Romans may be attributed the invention of the curb bit. The 

 Emperor Theodosius is represented in one of the ancient sculptures as 

 using a bit with a tremendously long lever, and which could inflict 

 dreadful punishment if the rider were so inclined. 



It may readily be supposed that a knowledge of the horse now became 

 more perfect and more diffused. Terrentius Varro, Avho flourished about 

 the year 70 before Christ, and during the existence of the commonwealth, 

 has given a description of the horse, which has scarcely been excelled in 

 modern times. 'We may prognosticate great things of a colt,' says he, 

 ' if, Avlien running in the pastures, he is ambitious to get before his com- 

 panions, and if, in coming to a river, he strives to be the first to plunge 

 into it. His head should he small, his limbs clean and compact, his eyes 

 bright and sparkhng, his nostrils open and large, his ears placed near each 

 other, his mane strong and full, his chest broad, his shoulders flat and 

 sloping backward, his barrel round and compact, his loins bi'oad and 

 strong, his tail full and bushy, his legs straight and even, his knees broad 

 and well knit, his hoofs hard and tough, and his veins large and swelling 

 over all his body.' 



Virgil, eighty or ninety years afterwards, gives some interesting accounts 

 of the horse, and particularly Avhen taken from the pursuits of war and 

 employed in the peaceful service of agricultiire. 



A few years after him followed Columella, who, in a work devoted 

 exclusively to agricultiu*e, treats at length of the management of the horse 

 and of many of his diseases. 



To him succeeded Palladius on agriculture, the management of the vine- 

 yard, and the apiary, &c. ; and he also describes at considerable length 

 the treatment and the diseases of the horse. 



About the same time, or somewhat before, the Roman emperors being 

 continually engaged in foreign wars, and in many of these expeditions the 

 cavalry forming a most efiective division of the army, veterinary surgeons 

 Avere appointed to each of the legions. The horse and his management 

 and diseases were then for the first time systematically studied. The 

 Avorks, or extracts from the works, of a few of them are preserved. There 

 is, hoAvever, little in them that is valuable. 



About the middle of the fourth century a volume of a difierent character 

 on the veterinary art Avas Avi'itten by Vegetius, Avho appears to have been 

 attached to the army, but in what situation is unknoAvn. His Avork, Avith 

 all its errors, is truly valuable as a collection of the best remarks that had 

 been Avritten on veterinary matters, from the earUest age to his day and 

 including extracts from the works of Chii'on and Hippocrates, which 

 Avould otherwise have been lost. The history of the symptoms of various 

 diseases is singularly correct, but the mode of treatment reflects little 

 credit on the veterinary acquirements of the author or the age in which 

 he lived. 



Almost in his time the irruptions of the Goths commenced, and shortly 

 after cA-ery record of science Avas swept aAvay in both the eastern and the 

 western empires. 



