GENERAL 1 NT K( ) DTCTION. vii 



somewhat singular, as, both in Egypt and in Greece, considerable progress had been 

 iiKulo ill human and comparative anatomy. Amon^^ the ancients, Celsus is the only 

 physician of ctkbrity who is said to have written on veterinary medicine; whilst 

 Xenophon is the most ancient Greek writer who has specially written upon the liorse. 

 His performance, however, is confined to the training of the animal for war and the 

 chase : it is supposed, however, that the ancients had a knowledjjje of the disease which 

 is called the " glanders," and was known under the denomination of the " moist 

 malady." 



Whatever merit may be assigned to ancient writers on veterinary art, arises from the 

 dietetic rules, and the works of domestic management they have bequeathed to us. In 

 other respects they were but in their novitiate. They were powerful in the art of 

 purging ; but what they have left us on the symptoms of disease, has not tended to 

 advance our knowledge ; although it is an evidence that they were not inattentive 

 observers, however far they failed in the application of the proper remedies. In 

 bleeding they were as great as in purging ; but whatever were their drawbacks, they were 

 much superior, not only in learning and eloquence, but even in professional ability, to 

 the vast majority of their pupils of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. 

 At these periods, the mental gloom, which had so long darkened the European continent, 

 began to be dispelled, when, with the general dawn, the works of the ancient veterinary 

 writers became objects of search and desire; and, as fast as they were found, they were 

 translated into the Italian and the French languages. The art became a study. Ruini 

 and others described, anatomically, the body of the horse ; schools began to be established 

 for professional instruction : and, notwithstanding the immense advantages which have 

 arisen from the general diflfu.-ion of knowledge, the labours of these first teachers, after 

 the revival of learning, must still be acknowledged with respect and gratitude. The 

 medicinal part of veterinarianism was more generally cultivated, and, at least in 

 some instances, under accredited medical professors. Every branch of the equine 

 economy — whether as regards the harness or the trappings, equitation, the military 

 menage, or the riding of the horse ; the methodical treatment of the hoof, accompanied 

 with the invention of various forms of iron shoes, as well as their scientific adaptation to 

 the foot — were eagerly pursued, and mostly with success. In the shoeing department, 

 one Csesar Fiaschi greatly distinguished himself; and either invented or recommended 

 the welted shoe as a substitute for calkins and forknails, which were then in use. He 

 is also said to have invented the lunette, a sort of short shoe in the shape of a 

 half-moon, which, since his time, has met with favour from some of the faculty. 



The new art having rapidly diffused itself over a large portion of the European 

 continent, soon reached England, where the cure of diseased or injured animals had, 

 from time immemorial, been given over to the tender mercies of leeches and farriers, 

 whose ignorance generally was only rivalled by their inhumanity. In proof of this, an 

 expression of Markham, a writer on the subject, is confirmative. " Other torments there 

 are," says he, after expatiating upon his cures by the use of fire and the knife. It is 

 probable that the future scintillations of knowledge, first received in this country, 

 occurred in the days of the Tudors ; as we learn from Blundeville, who wrote in the 

 reign of Elizabeth, that French and German farriers were not only employed by the 

 queen, but, in general, by the English nobility and gentry. Yet the progress of our 

 practitioners was slow — possibly arising from the greater amount of countenance beinc," 

 given to the foreigners ; but from the period of which we now speak, to that.of the earlier 



