The T REF A C E, 



wt have all the Refufeofphyfical Authors; and moflr 

 Books that are at this Day extvint upon the Subjecfl, 

 have been form'd upon the Writings of thofe Perlons -, 

 fo that the Cure of Horfes feems to be but very little 

 underftood, notwithftanding all the Care and Pains 

 that has been taken to perfed; it. 



SoUeyfell was fo fenfible of this, and of the bad 

 Cuftoms which had obtained among the Farriers of 

 France in his time, that it put him upon a more dili- 

 gent Search into the Bufinefs, by confulting the befl: 

 Authors of Phyfick and Surgery, as hlmfelf takes no- 

 tice, whereby he has indeed not only deliver'd a more 

 fafe and regular Pradlice, than any that went before 

 him, but has alfo introduced Methods altogether new, 

 with a great Variety of Medicines, which before had 

 never taken Place in the Difeafes of Horfes : But 

 yet, for all this, he was himfelf infedted with many 

 of the Errors of his Predeceffors : for he is fofcrupu- 

 lous asto TimesandSeafons, and fo much ty*d up 

 to Cuflom, that it even renders his Methods very im- 

 pradicable in m.any Circumftances, and as he was not 

 rightly acquainted with ihz Animal Oecono?n)\ he has 

 accounted for many of the Difeafes, not from the 

 true Mechanifm of the Body of a Horfe, but in a 

 fpeculative and abftrafted Way ; which is fo far 

 from leading any one into the Nature and Caufe of 

 Difeafes, that it muft rather bewilder his Pupils, and 

 bring them farther into the dark. 



Nor are thefe the only things wherein that Author 

 is blam^able : but if we examine into his Method 

 of Cure, it is fo imperfedl and perplexed in many 

 Places, by frequent Digreflions, that a Man muft be 

 well acquainted with the Subjeft, or at more than 

 ordinary Pains to reap any great Advantage from it: 

 And as to his Medicines, tho' many of them are, no 

 doubt, extraordinary good, and very well adapted to 

 their feveral Intentions ; yet it is very plain, he has 

 ji/erted a Number of others, with long and tedious 

 A 2 En- 



