AND SURGERY. 2ig 



nifhed at the approach of modem light ; but it 

 may well be thought furprihng, that in this dif- 

 cerning age, when a liberal education is uni- 

 verfally acknowledged to be abfolutely necefTary 

 to the acquifition of medical fcience, that an 

 illiterate farrier fliould be entrufted in the cure 

 of difeafes. Precifely the fame ftudies, phyfiolo- 

 gical, anatomical, and medical, are requifite for 

 the veterinarian, as the human pra6litioner. 

 The animal ceconomy in its manifold relations 

 is generally and fundamentally the fame, in men 

 and beafts, and governed by the fame laws of 

 nature and natural mechanics ; the fame materia 

 medica is univerfally applicable to both, but the 

 greateft (kill is requisite to form a judgment 

 on the difeafes of brutes, from their inability to 

 defcribe their feelings, and the confequent un- 

 certainty of their pathology. Can there be a 

 greater burlefque, than the fuppofition of a 

 man's ability to prefcribe phyfic for a horfe, 

 merely becaufe he underftands how to groom or 

 fhoe him ? or might not we alfo with equal 

 reafon, employ our own (hoemakers, in taking 

 meafure of our health ? The plea of experience 

 is futile, from the utter inability, prima face, of 

 illiterate and uninformed men to inveftigatc the 

 principles of fcience, and their total want of 

 opportunity to acquire, even by rote, a rational 

 fyflem of pradice. The whole flock of me- 

 dical knowledge of thefe practitioners, ufually 



con fills 



