via PREFACE. 



furnished by nature. This was the man who rescued 

 Athens from the most dreadful scourge that ever af- 

 flicted the human race. But so soon as the science of 

 medicine was rendered technical, and also, incompre- 

 hensible by false theories and chemical speculations ; 

 then simple remedies were replaced by agents prepared 

 in the chemist's laboratory, many of which are known 

 to be highly injurious and poisonous ; and others no 

 less noxious, were obtained from the vegetable world ; 

 these are the " heroic " medicines, — " They deserve a 

 considerable share of the praise of the Ccesars and 

 Alexanders of the world ; powerful to destroy^ heroic in 

 bloody havoc, and desolations^ 



But the days of heroic medicine, so far as it applies 

 to the United States, are numbered. Intelligent men of 

 the right stamp, are now engaged in testing the merits 

 of the new system of practice recommended in the 

 ^' Modern Horse Doctor,^'* and in this work ; and it is 

 gratifying to the author to know that his work on the 

 horse has had a large circulation among the lovers 

 of fine animals ; and this work is now offered in the 

 hope, that it may do good and advance the cause of 

 medical reform. 



George H. Dadd. 



Boston, 1859. 



