viii aENEKAL INTEODUCTION. 



part of the eighteenth century, veterinarianism in England, like the lengthening chain of 

 Goldsmith, only dragged its slow length along. No medical name of the smallest 

 scientific pretensions appears on the veterinary list throughout that long, dreary interval 

 in the medical, surgical, or anatomical branches of the art. To be sure, there is a person 

 of the name of Snape, who crajps up, and who was the farrier of Charles 11, The family 

 of this man, it appears from his book, had, for upwards of 200 years, served the crown in 

 the capacity which, it is to be hoped, he himself worthily filled, as he seems to have been 

 tolerably informed. His anatomical system, arrangements, and nomenclature, were a 

 copy of the Italian school ; but he was a dissector himself, and described from his own 

 observations. Besides Snape, there are the names of Stephens, Martin, Clifford, and 

 Morgan, all of whom are early writers on the veterinary art ; but they are of no merit. 

 Neither is the work of Mascal, the farrier of James I. This book is ludicrous in the extreme ; 

 and it may be taken as a significant sign of the ignorance of the age when he wrote in 

 reference to farriery, that his book passed through numerous editions, notwithstanding that 

 there were other national and even learned treatises on the same subject. It is difficult 

 to account for this : but he was the Icing'' s farrier ; and as there is something in position 

 and a name even in these enlightened days, it is probable that there was a similar 

 something in those of the Scotch Solomon who sat upon the English throne. To the 

 above list may be added the names of De Gray and Gervase Markham, who continued to 

 publish till after the Eestoration. Markham's works have been said to comprise " every 

 absurd, barbarous, and abominable juggling trick," as well as every useful invention which 

 had, up to his time, issued from the brains of either ancients or moderns. Whatever 

 may be the defects and deformities of the works of Markham, however, they had a rapid 

 and widely-extended sale. They enjoyed a high reputation down to the days of Gibson; 

 and even long afterwards were held in esteem among the country leeches and farriers. 

 Fame of this sort is indicative of some merit. Mankind in general are slow to give 

 praise where it is not justly due ; and that which was conferred on the works of Markham, 

 seems to have endured longer than that which was extended to preceding writers on the 

 same subject. It is allowed that his work contains the amplest details of the practice of 

 farriery as then in vogue, with delineations of the instruments in use, not very differently 

 contrived from those employed in the practice of subsequent professors. As a specimen 

 of the nonsense with which some of the writers on farriery disfigured their works, we 

 may instance an example from Dr. Gray. In a case of farcy, this sage equine 

 Esculapius orders the medicine to be administered to the ears of the horse, and 

 drawn up therein. In a case of lameness, he orders a turf to be cut and secreted; 

 and in proportion as the turf decays and wastes away, so shall the lamieness of the 

 animal gradually depart. Could folly go further? Yet men like these were the 

 persons who took upon themselves the cure of the noblest of the lower race of animals, 

 when unfortunately fallen ill or laid up by some injury, which, in all probability, nature 

 herself would have cured, but for the officious assistance of these sagacious prac- 

 titioners. 



In the reign of Elizabeth, a person of the name of Blundeville wrote a fashionable 

 treatise on the " Horse," based on the practice of the continent ; and, in the following 

 reign, Baret produced his Hipponomie, or the Vineyard of Horsemanship. In this work 

 is discussed the relative branches, including the principles and practice of racing, and of 

 that system of equitation peculiar to England. This is followed by a huge folio by the 

 Duke of Newcastle, who enters into details upon the regular management of the horse, 



