70 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. \ /. 



Eastern Arkansas, where, at one time, it assumed the features 

 of an epidemic. During the years from 1849 to 1858 the 

 author traveled extensively through those sections, and also 

 through Northern Alabama, for the purpose of gaining a 

 more perfect knowledge of this disease, and, if possible, to 

 discover. its cause and cure. It was not uncommon to find, 

 upon the smaller estates, from one to ^ve horses and mules 

 afflicted with big head in its worst forms, while the larger 

 cotton plantations frequently presented the sad spectacle of 

 twelve or fifteen utterly hopeless cases. 



At that period the most lamentable ignorance reigned 

 every-where in regard to this disease — its nature, causes, 

 and treatment. Its pathology was not understood by any 

 one. A few modern horse doctors had published their views 

 upon it in pamphlets, and two, perhaps, in book form. Carver 

 and Mason had noticed it only to pronounce it incurable ; yet 

 each gave what he called a remedy, which, however, was found 

 to be conceived in ignorance and born in cruelty. In no soli- 

 tary instance was there any rational connection between the 

 nature of the disease and the treatment applied to it. 



These works threw no light upon the subject, and furnished 

 no clue to its intelligent study ; they only " darkened counsel," 

 and made investigation more difficult and uncertain. To dis- 

 cover the true nature and proper treatment of big head was, 

 indeed, a 'herculean task. There were no books and no 

 teachers, only the dreadful scourge and its operations; for 

 the school, only the stable lots of the planters; no encour- 

 agement pecuniarily, and little in any other way. The 

 pathology of the disease was to be written, its diagnosis 

 formed, and its materia medica collected and applied under 

 the most unfavorable circumstances. Every-where the horse 

 doctor was looked upon with the utmost odium, and his name 

 regarded as only a synonym for imposition and low-bred 

 ignorance. It would be impossible, at this period of time, to 

 convey to the mind of the reader any adequate idea of the 

 utter contempt and detestation in which the horse doctor's 

 profession was then commonly held. Every thing had to be 



