28 PROGRESS OF THE VETERINARY ART IN ENGLAND. 



on the hearts of living animals, to prove that the auricles 

 were equal. In 1641, Hoffman discovered the excretory duct 

 of the pancreas in a turkey-cock. The peristaltic motion of 

 the intestines was first discovered in animals. In short, the 

 greater part of the functions in the human frame were first 

 made known by the general analogy subsisting between the 

 functions of animal organization. From what has been here 

 written, though in a summary manner, it appears that the 

 science is efficient in itself, and has given unequivocal proofs 

 of its ability to enlarge the boundaries of general medicine. 



Veterinary Surgeon Percival, in his introductory remarks 

 to a series of elementary lectures on veterinary science, in 

 drawing a comparison between such practitioners who have 

 carefully studied anatomy, and those who have not, very truly 

 observes, that no man supposes his watch can be repaired at 

 the anvil, though there are those who send their horses to the 

 blacksmith to be cured of their diseases. They know that 

 the man is unacquainted with the mechanism of a watch ; 

 and yet they trust him with a machine, to which, in point of 

 complication, a watch can as little be compared as a rattle 

 can to a watch. Why, then, are men so blind ? Is it that a 

 horse is of less value than a watch ? No ! It is owing to 

 the vile trash diffused as treatises on farriery, so truly disgust- 

 ing to a man of common reflection, that he forms his opinion 

 of the art by those he entertains of the book. " Miserable 

 animal!" says Sainbel, "bereft of speech, thou canst not 

 complain, when, to the disease with which thou art afflicted, 

 excruciating torments are superadded by ignorant men, who 

 at first sight, and without a knowledge of thy structure, pro- 

 nounce in thy case, and then proceed with all expedition to 

 open thy veins, lacerate thy flesh, cauterize thy sinews, and 

 drench thy stomach with drugs opposed to the cure they 

 engage to perform." 



A veterinary school has lately been established in Scot- 

 land, where every thing that it behooves the practitioner to 

 know is taught ; and, more recently, that excellent and truly 

 liberal institution, the University of London, has admitted a 



