INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 41 



excepted, are by no means fuch expert horfe- 

 men. For the fame reafon, that is to fay, 

 becaufe the Horfe has never been fo practically 

 underftood in France as in England ; at leaft 

 within the prefent century, their writers of this 

 period have been, I conceive, inferior to ours in 

 effentials. La Fofle, Bourgelat, and St. Bel, 

 had a great deal of fcience, they defcribed, 

 accurately and well, the theory of motion in 

 Horfes, and their geometrical proportions ; they 

 had abundance of veterinary practice at their 

 infirmaries ; but which, I have been given to 

 underftand, was not unfrequently governed by 

 a rage for experiment, rather than Readily 

 conduced upon the true principles of medical 

 philofophy. I muft own they appear to me 

 good writers, but too much theorifts. I may 

 be a partial, or what I think more probable, an 

 incapable judge ; but in my opinion there is 

 more folid and ufeful knowledge to be drawn 

 from the Englifh, than the French veterinary 

 writers. In rural ceconomies, this country has 

 alfo preferved a fimilar fuperiority; and yet 

 France has enjoyed the advantage of numerous 

 inftitutions, favourable to that fcience, and of 

 an infinity of writers and fpeculators there- 

 upon. In whatever they have failed, the 

 defect may be fairly attributed to their late 

 defpotic fyftem of government, which devoured 

 the fineft country, and {lifted the energies of 



the 



