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CHAPTER II. 



PERIOD FROM A.D. 40O TO A.D. 1 50O. 



A.D. 400. In this century we find veterinary science progressing, 

 and becoming more fit to take cognizance of epizootic diseases. 

 The authors who treat of veterinary subjects are more numerous, 

 and some of their works are yet extant. The Emperor of the 

 Eastern Empire, Constantine, gave every encouragement to the 

 noble emulation he had raised in regard to the conservation of 

 the domestic animals, and the perfecting of the veterinary art, 

 and many ai)le writers dedicated the results of their researches 

 to him. Among these we have Vegetius Renatus, Count of 

 Constantinople, who complains that in his time the science was 

 much neglected, and did not receive all the attention which its 

 importance demanded, and which he estimates next to that 

 of human medicine. In his ' Treatise on the Veterinary Art ^ 

 he has left us a clearer, more precise, and a more extended cata- 

 logue of diseases than any of his predecessors. There is much, 

 of course, in the treatise derived from ignorance and supersti- 

 tion. As a proof of this, wc may notice that he avers that if an 

 ox eats the excrement of a pig, he must be treated as a pestifer- 

 ous animal.^ These weaknesses wc must tolerate in return for 



' Si atttem porcimim stercus bos devoraverit stalim pextilentiam contagionis illiu^ 

 mallei sustinet morbi. Book iii. chap. ii. It is curious to find Columella giving 

 a similar opinion : Et id prcecipuc qtiod egerit sus ccgra pcstilentiam faccre valet. 

 Book vi. cliap. v. 



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