CAUSES OF COMPLAINT. 19 



to perfect the veterinary science. Dr. J. Bell says, " Anato- 

 my is the basis of medical skill; " yet, in another part of his 

 work, he says, " It enables the physician to guess at the seat, 

 .or causes, or consequences of disease!" This is what we 

 propose hereafter to call the science — the science of guess- 

 ing ! If such is the immense mortality (as Mr. Youatt states) 

 in England, — a country that boasts of her veterinary insti- 

 tutions, and embraces within her medical halo some of the 

 brightest luminaries of the present century, — what, we ask, 

 is the mortality in the United States, where the veterinary 

 science scarcely has an existence, and where not one man in 

 a hundred can tell a disease of the bowels from one of the 

 lungs ? Profiting by the experience of these men, we are in 

 hopes to build up a system of practice that will stand a tower 

 of strength amid the rude shock of medical theories. We 

 have discovered that the lancet is a powerful depressor of 

 vitality, and that poisons derange, instead of producing, 

 healthy action. That they are generally resorted to in this 

 country, no one will deny, and often by men who are un- 

 acquainted with the nature of the destructive agents they are 

 making use of. The common practice of administering aloes, 

 in diseases resulting from a common cold, is just as destruc- 

 tive as poisoning and bloodletting. Dr. J. Boutall, V. S., of 

 London, states that " aloes given to ahorse that is laboring 

 under a cold is likely to produce glanders." 



Dr. Vines, demonstrator of anatomy in the Royal College, 

 states that " physicking a horse when there is a discharge from 

 the nostrils will produce glanders." The author has known 

 death to result from the administration of a ball containing 

 eight drachms of aloes and one drachm of calomel. A friend 

 informed us that he occasionally puts up physic balls for 

 horses containing three ounces of aloes. An eminent profes- 

 sor has said that " purgatives, besides being uncertain and 

 uncontrollable, often kill from the dangerous irritation and 

 debility they produce." The good results that sometimes 

 follow the exhibition of drastic purges, antimony, &c, must 

 be attributed to the sanative action of the constitution of the 



