IS CAUSES OF COMPLAINT. 



" 2d. They gradually departed from the use of nature's 

 remedies, and introduced into their therapeutics the processes 

 of bleeding, blistering, the knife, and caustic ; and into their 

 Materia Medica the most deadly poisons contained in the 

 threefold kingdom of nature, whether derived at once from 

 her laboratory, or detached from her compounds by the use 

 of her powers, under the guidance of chemical science. 



" In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the famous 

 chemist Paracelsus introduced a new system into medicine, 

 founded on the principles of his art. Hitherto the physicians 

 rejected the use of opium, calomel, and other efficacious 

 remedies. Efficacious they have been, as the ghosts of 

 murdered millions could declare ! Here, it seems, that for the 

 art of aiding nature in her efforts to remove disease, which 

 had been practised with a tolerable degree of consistency, and 

 with astonishing success, by Hippocrates and Galen, was sub- 

 stituted the general use of poisons, which, however, in other 

 respects agree in l suddenly and rapidly extinguishing a great 

 portion of the vitality of the system ! ' O, what a falling 

 off was there ! 



" Permutations in the extent of depletion, or the quantity of 

 poison to be given, the particular articles containing it, the 

 locality or the manner of the applications, the stage of the 

 disease, or the hour of the day to be chosen for operation, 

 have indeed been studied, and tried, and guessed at ; but still 

 the chief practice consists in bleeding, blistering, cutting, 

 burning, physicking, poisoning in some shape or other ; inso- 

 much that old Time long ago hung up his scythe as useless.' 1 



The veterinary science was ushered into existence by men 

 who practised according to the doctrines of the theoretical 

 schools. We may trace it in its infancy when, in Er gland, 

 in the year 1788, it was rocked in the cradle of Allopathy by 

 Sainbel, its texture varying to suit the skill of Clark, Law- 

 rence, Field, Blaine, and Coleman ; yet with all their amount 

 of talent and wisdom, their pupils must acknowledge that 

 the melancholy triumph of disease over its victims clearly 

 evinces that their combined stock of knowledge is insufficient 



