^■' 



10 

 cramp teclinical phrases. In human medicine, a do« 

 inestic treatise on the cure of disease is supposed to 

 border on empiricism, and a man so writing is deem- 

 ed liable to injure the health of mankind, and the 

 particuh^r welfare of tlie regular practitioner ; but 

 though this may in some measure apply to human 

 medicine, because in most places, however small, 

 there is commonly some surgeon or apothecary near, 

 from whom the sick may find ready relietj yet in 

 veterinai-y medicine it cannot apply ; for even large 

 towns, many of them, have no regular veteriiiariars, 

 Vt'liile smaller towns, villages, and the country at 

 large, are all of them deprived of any other assistance 

 than what can be gained from the neighbouring smith ; 

 or, at least, they can very seldom produce any person 

 at all fit to be trusted : therefore any plan that renders 

 persons in general able to treat the diseases of their 

 animals successfully, without risk or trouble, must 

 be a valuable one. This I have endeavoured to lay 

 down in the following sheets. 



But even A\'hen this is gained, that is, when per- 

 sons are enabled readily to distinguish one disease 

 from another, and vvlien the treatment of the several 

 diseases is miderstood, even then, in most cases, the 

 remedies are often not within their reach ; for, frci- 

 quently, no chemist, druggist, or apothecary, is near 

 to compound the prescribed remedies ; or, even w hen. 

 present, these medicines, on account of their expense, 

 may be adulterated, or made deficient; or cue drugj 

 as is frequently the case, may be substituted for an- 

 other : and as to entrusting a regular recipe with 

 farriers of the common class, they, in the first place, 

 seldom have an assortment of drugs or compounds ; 



