244 ^^ VETERINARY MEDICINE 



Others the difgufting and unprofitable labour of 

 wading through the mafs, both of unfatisfac- 

 tory and imperfeft compilation, and original 

 impertinence. Let me not be here cenfured as 

 too affuming, fmce I have frequently heard fur- 

 geons exprefs themfelves at a lofs what method 

 tCKtake, in order to qualify themfelves for vete- 

 rinary praftice, and even deliberate on the pro- 

 priety of having recourfe to farriers for that 

 end ; others, I have known, commencing their 

 veterinary career with fcarcely having ever 

 turned over a fmgle page of the veterinary ^ 

 claflics, or even knowing their names ; and 

 when, in fome difficult cafe, which furpafled 

 their flender experience, they have been ad- 

 vifed to refer to proper authority, they have, 

 in my hearing, expreffed their wonder, " that 

 " men, who lived fo long ago, (hould know fo 

 " much." That thefe authors have been too 

 generally negleded of late, and their dcferts 

 ungratefully forgotten, witnefs the fuccefsful 

 humbug of the Stable Dircftory. 



The enquirer will not only find the analogy 

 between brute and human bodies fufficiently 

 clofe ; the variations of material confequence 

 few, and eafily diflinguifhable, and, indeed, al- 

 ready difHnguifhed to his hand, but alfo the 

 powers and fpecific eff"e61s of medicine upon 

 brute bodies, (horfes are chiefly to be under- 

 ftood) very accurately afcertained. The horfe, 

 torn from the privileged flate of nature, and 



domefticated 



