Z HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



ment, and what little was then known probably existed 

 among; those professing the art of human physic. When the 

 early Egyptians had trained the horse to the purposes of 

 war, his health may be supposed to have become an object 

 of solicitude. From the Egyptians the Grecians received 

 the knowledge of the management of the horse ; and with 

 them we know it flourished. Chiron, surnamed the Cen- 

 taur, pursued both human and brute medicine. Homer, 

 who flourished 900 years before Christ, celebrates the 

 training of the horse in the Greek courses ; and Xeno-- 

 phon, the renowned warrior, poet, and philosopher, wrote 

 a treatise on equitation, which contains ample evidence 

 how much the study of this valuable animal vvas in repute 

 among the most distinguished characters of his day. Hip- 

 pocrates, also, the most celebrated physician of early times, 

 wrote a treatise on the curative treatment of horses ; nor 

 did he disdain, in common with the eminent human prac- 

 titioners of those times, to practise indiscriminately on the 

 horse and his rider. 



When Rome had snatched from Greece her honours and 

 her arts, the horse also was taken with the rest ; and a 

 host of Latin authors on subjects connected with the 

 animal sprung up, the names of whom would swell our 

 pages. As a rustic writer, Columella deserves our mention ; 

 the rest we pass over till the age of Vegetius, who flou- 

 rished about 300 years after the birth of Christ, and whose 

 writings concentrated within themselves all that had been 

 collected by former veterinary authors of the empire. 

 A long night of darkness succeeded the irruptions of 

 the barbarous nations. During this time, however, iron 

 shoes, before but partially tried, became more generally 

 used ; and by an association only to be excused by the 

 state of the times, the treatment of the diseases of the 

 horse became the province of the shoeing-smith ; while the 

 medical assistance required for other beasts was gained 

 from goatherds, shepherds, &c. 



The ancient and honourable name of Veterinarius (whence 

 veterinarian) sanctioned by the classics of the Augustan 

 age, became lost in the more humble appellative of farrier, 

 derived solely from the metal on which he worked ; and 

 for a long period (happily now on the decline) the igno- 



