368 STABLE ECONOMYo 



mon diseases. They know that aloes and resin are two dif- 

 ferent things ; they can tell when a horse has broken wind, 

 when he is a roarer, when a crib-biter, when he is lame, and 

 when he is sick. Some can bleed, give a ball, and put in a 

 rowel. Though they can tell when a horse is ill, yet they 

 can not tell what ails him, unless it be some common affair, 

 such as the influenza, which they may see often. They 

 know when a horse is lame ; but they are not very often able 

 to discover where. When they blame the shoulder, ii is very 

 likely to be the foot. They can perform a few simple opera- 

 tions, among which bleeding and balling stand foremost ; but few 

 can perform these well, simple as they are, and many bungle 

 them most wretchedly. In truth, they know so little, that 

 they can not be depended on. They are just as likely to be 

 wrong as right. But, notwithstanding this, it must be allow- 

 ed that they know something, although they can not be said 

 to know anything well. They confound one thing with 

 another, like it, but not the same ; grease, for instance, with 

 farcy ; a common cold with glanders ; swelled leg with a 

 sprain ; foot lameness with shoulder lameness ; and so forth 

 in a hundred other things. 



Horse-shoers and village blacksmiths form another class. 

 Some have seen medicines, diseases, and operations, while 

 in the service of a veterinarian, and some have learned a little 

 about them merely by reading books and being consulted by 

 the owner or his groom. Those bred in the country know 

 less than an old stableman ; those who have been in the em- 

 ployment of a veterinarian, sometimes know more. The little 

 they learn is learned very slowly, and always imperfectly ; 

 but in time, some of them get a name, and subsequently a 

 good deal to do, which teaches them more or less. Their 

 knowledge, at best, resembles that of a nurse employed in an 

 hospital, or about sick persons. Being ignorant of anatomy 

 and physiology, they never improve beyond a certain point, 

 and there are hundreds of things which they can not compre- 

 hend nor manage. Operations which require cutting they 

 rarely try, and still more rarely perform as they ought to be 

 performed. Most of them have a few books, of which the bad 

 mislead them, and the good puzzle them. 



All boast of practical experience, by which they mean they 

 have seen a great deal. In all ranks, there are men who raise 

 mighty pretensions upon a very slender foundation. Give 

 them a telescope view of the moon, and they instantly become 

 astronomers ; show them a few experiments, and they are 



