INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. J$ 



lead he will find the praftice of thofe authors 

 fo vituperatively cited, fairly and fpecifically 

 brought forward, and proved to be erroneous, 

 old fafhioned, and obfolete — faith, no fuch 

 thing — never was a more confident writer 

 than the author of the Stable Directory — and 

 his uniformity of character and praclice, is 

 preferved to a tittle, in the chapter on colds. 

 The theory of obftrucled perforation is taken 

 from Bracken ; the immediate caufes of colds, 

 with remarks and cautions, from that author, 

 and Gibfon, as it chanced to fuit the obvious 

 purpofe of the fele&or. As to the cure— he 

 begins with anifeed, liquorice-powder, and 

 honey, to be adminiftered in a mafh ; the very 

 fame things which Gibfon firft orders ; with 

 this difference, that Gibfon has joined with 

 them fome more powerful auxiliaries, and or- 

 dered the whole in a liquid form; which, I 

 conceive, in this particular cafe to be preferable. 

 His next recourfe is to detergent and pectoral 

 balls, infignificantly varied from. Bracken and 

 Bartlet, although I cannot help agreeing with 

 him, in his rejection of the brimilone from the 

 old cordial ball ; which, confidering the nature 

 of the other ingredients, I conceive, renders the 

 whole, in the true farrier's phrafe, " a kind of 

 a heater, and a kind of a cooler." Nitre comes 

 next, the favourite fpecific of Bartlet; nor are 

 the mercurial phyfic, or the tar, turpentines, 



balfams, 



