24 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



Duke (being a great amateur) had more expe- 

 rience than could be attainable by any private 

 perfon. 



From that period, to the reign of George I. 

 we had no equeftrian, or veterinary writer, of 

 any note, until Sir William Hope publifhed 

 his Complete Horfeman. This work confifts 

 of a tranflation of the French writer Solleyfell, 

 to which is fubjoined an original treatife by Sir 

 William, where fome practical remarks are to 

 be found worthy of remembrance. 



It is not to be contemplated, without aftonifh- 

 ment, that, previous to the lad-mentioned 

 period, no man of the medical profeflion in 

 England, had thought it worth his while to 

 beflow a part of his attention upon the nature 

 and difeales of Horfes, notwithstanding the 

 immenfe and growing confequence of the 

 animal to the higher ranks of fociety in parti- 

 cular; and that the breed had, for near two 

 centuries, been an object of greater concern in 

 this, than in any other country. Indeed the 

 breeding and management of Horfes had pro- 

 ceeded in the regular and natural train of im- 

 provement, and had kept equal pace with 

 other arts ; but veterinary medicine had under- 

 gone little or no change, hnce the days of 

 Blundevill and Markham, either in theorv or 

 practice. The wretched, ill-fated animal, after 

 being maimed and crippled in the fervice of 



his 



