PREFACE. XIX 



due encouragement and encomiums, any steps taken by 

 the authorities in the right direction. The college ought 

 to have the privilege to grant diplomas to properly 

 qualified persons. Public lectures ought to be delivered, 

 and secure a wide circulation, and every exertion used 

 to dispel the alarming ignorance that prevails regarding 

 the proper treatment of one of the most noble and 

 valuable of animals. A.s an example of the worse than 

 ignorance that exists on this subject, the Author thinks 

 it necessary to describe an occurrence which came under 

 his own observation. A Horse belonging to a farmer not 

 many miles from Fermoy, was taken ill. As a matter 

 of course, the disease wa, only aggravated by the use of 

 improper medicines prescribed by those who knew not 

 the nature of the disorder under which the poor animal 

 laboured. An old woman, reputed to possess some 

 mii'aculous influence over sick horses, was sent for, and 

 brought a distance of fifteen miles ; on her arrival she 

 was immediately brought to the stable, and having ex- 

 amined the horse with the necessary degree of mystery, 

 mingled with some perplexity, and, no doubt, regarding 

 the dupes who surrounded her with scorn and contempt, 

 she proceeded to exercise her supernatural power by 

 blowing three times into the nostrils of the animal, 

 repeating, at the same time, the supposed diabolical ex- 

 pressions which constitute what is called the "charm." 

 But the poor animal "heeded not the voice of the 

 charmer, charmed she ever so wisely," and died the 

 next day. 



But the most surprising part of the story is, that the 

 result did not shake the implicit belief in her power, 



