22 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



former have degenerated in confequence of 

 the curfe intailed upon mankind by original 

 fin; which faid curfe, with all its lamentable 

 refults, neceflarily extended to the brute crea- 

 tion. What a faultlefs race of couriers might 

 have fcoured along our plains, but for the 

 theft of that fatal nonpareil; and what a 

 ferious bufinefs it was in the olden time to rob 

 an orchard. 



The authors, who next prefent themfelves 

 in our veterinary catalogue, are De Grey and 

 Snape ; of the former, whofe book I have not 

 looked into thefe many years, all I recollect. 

 is: that he was an advocate for breeding 

 Horfes upon the plan of having the foals drop- 

 ped in the winter feafon, to which fingular 

 opinion, I believe, he made few converts; and 

 that he, in a certain difeafe, the name of which I 

 have forgot, prefcribes prepared toads as an 

 infallible remedy. He direcls the old cruel 

 method of baking the toads, which I particu- 

 larly advert to, that I may have an opportunity 

 of commending the humanity of the editor of 

 a late edition of Ouincy's Difpenfary, who re- 

 commends previoully to fmother the animals 

 with fulphur. 



Snape was farrier to King Charles II. and the 

 little he has left, proves him to have been a 

 writer of a very different character from the laft- 

 mentioned. He publifhed the Anatomy of the 

 Horfe, availing himfelf of the labours of Ruini, 



and 



