PREFACE. XVn 



Unfortunately, owing to circumstances to which re- 

 ference shall presently be made, the use of "charms" 

 to cui-e the '' Farcy," &c., prevails in Ireland to a very 

 great extent. Ignorant impostors succeed in inducing 

 many owners of horses to believe that they have the 

 power, by repeating some mystic jargon, to effect the 

 cure of the most inveterate diseases. That men are found 

 to take advantage of the credulity of others is not sur- 

 prising, but that rational persons, in the middle of the 

 nineteenth century, should thus allow themselves to 

 become the dupes of such designing knaves, is full 

 matter for wonder and astonishment. In England and 

 Scotland, Royal Veterinary Colleges have been long 

 established, and gentlemen are properly qualified by a 

 regular course of study, and practice for this branch of 

 medical science. Here in Ireland, however, there is a 

 large class of ignorant pretenders, whose knowledge is 

 principally composed of charms and quackery, and who, 

 without having the slightest idea of the physical organ- 

 ization, or the functions of the different parts of the vital 

 system of this noble animal, will presumptuously 

 undertake to cure it of all diseases. When quack 

 medicines fail, charms are resorted to. The latter, though 

 of course monstrously absurd and perfectly inefficacious, 

 do not kill. This cannot be said of the former, for 

 partly owing to the want of a Yeterinary College in 

 Ireland, until very recently, and the consequent 

 ignorance that prevailed, this country has been inundated 

 by a quantity of mischievous works on this subject, 

 written by non-professional men, with reckless indif- 

 ference regarding the nature of their contents, and got 



