42 2 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



rigour and changes of the weather, or they are gorged 

 with food, denied a sufficient quantity, or supplied 

 with such as is unwholesome. Here we learn the 

 chief cause of their maladies. Learn to prevent them, 

 instead of undertaking the tedious, unsuitable, and 

 hopeless task of learning to cure them. Of all things 

 let the proprietors of cattle renounce for ever the in- 

 sane folly of offering premiums for curing incurable 

 diseases, and the hope of providing medicines which, 

 by a sort of miraculous operation, will enable men to 

 continue in the habit of exposing their animals to the 

 constant risk of such diseases. I have no infallible 

 recipes to offer. On the contrary, I wish to impress 

 my readers strongly with the idea that all infallible 

 recipes are infallible nonsense T 



We agree with Mr White, that, ** almost all the 

 diseases of cattle arise either from exposure to wet 

 and cold weather, from their food being of a bad 

 quality, or deficient in quantity, or from being changed 

 too suddenly from poor, unwholesome keep to richer 

 pasture. It is necessary to observe also that the 

 animal is more liable to be injured by exposure to 

 wet and cold, when previously enfeebled by bad keep, 

 old age, or any other cause, and particularly when 

 brought from milder and more sheltered situations. 

 I have scarcely met with a disease that is not attributed 

 by those who have the care of cattle, to a chill ; and 

 under this impression the most stimulating medicines 

 are usually employed : among which we generally find 

 grains of paradise, ginger, long pepper, and mustard, 

 in large doses. It unfortunately happens that the 

 disorders arising from a chill are often of an in- 

 flamrnatory nature, and require a very different treat- 

 ment. It must be granted, however, that cattle more 

 frequently require stimulating medicines than horses ; 



