145 



I have, from my attention to this fubje6l, been 

 taxed with a want of common and proper pride. I 

 believe it might not be difficult to prove that this very- 

 pride would be a fufficient motive, independent of a 

 ftrong affedion for the animal in queftion, to flimu- 

 late fome perfons to the purfuit ; for in human me- 

 dicine there are fo many ingenious practitioners, that 

 there is little chance of rifmg to fuperior eminence: 

 in the attention, likewife, to the difeafes of horfes, an 

 individual has alfo too many cotemporaries to be 

 able greatly to fignalize himfelf ; but the difeafes of 

 doss offer an unbeaten track : and here the pradi- 

 tioner may ftart alone and unrivalled, and for fome 

 time, at leaft, is likely to reap his honours and emo- 

 luments undifturbed. And, for myfelf, I mufl own, 

 that I think it more fatisfadory to fland firft in a 

 fubordinate purfuit, than unnoticed in a fuperior 

 one. 



