70 ® 
lished the book of cures which lie promised, 
we are uninformed, but he was doubtless lar 
better qualified for that task than those of his 
profession upon whom that branch of the ve- 
terinary art unfortunately devolved. Stevens, 
Martin, Clifford, Morgan, were very early 
writers among the leeches and farriers. The 
book of Mascal, farrier to James I. is most 
laughably illiterate, and we cannot help won- 
dering with a late author how such a book 
could possibly pass through numerous edi- 
tions in a learned age, and which even pos- 
sessed learned and rational books on the same 
subject. The above list may be concluded 
with De Grey and the celebrated Gervase 
Markham, a contemporary of Blundeville, 
who continued to publish perhaps until alter 
the Restoration, and whose works were stuffed 
with every absurd, barbarous, and abomi- 
nable juggling trick, as w r ell as with every 
useful invention which had issued from tire 
brains of either antients or moderns. As 
a specimen of the medical part of the 
horse leech-craft of Markham, he prescribes 
human ordure in certain cases for the horse, 
both externally and internally. Yet this man’s 
works had a most rapid and universal sale, 
and continued in repute until the days of 
Gibson, and even long afterwards among the 
country leeches arid farriers. It must be al- 
lowed that Markham’s book contained the 
fullest detail of the practice of the farrier, 
with a delineation of his instruments, not ma- 
terially different from those in present use. 
Blundeville wrote sensibly and respectably 
on the general subject of the horse, accord- 
ing to the continental, the then fashionable 
practice. Baret in the succeeding reign, that 
of James T. wrote a learned treatise, entitled 
an Hipponomie, or the Vineyard of Horse- 
manship, in which he ably, and from obvious 
great experience, discusses all the relative 
branches, including the principles and prac- 
tice of the race-course, and of that system of 
equitation peculiar to, and so generally pre- 
valent in, this country. The huge folio of 
the duke of Newcastle gives us the regular 
manege of the horse from the continental 
schools, with anaccount-of the different -races 
of the animal, in which Iris grace was a con- 
noisseur of high celebrity. 1 hroughout the 
same interval veterinary science in I' ranee 
seems to have remained almost exclusively 
in the hands of the marshals or farriers, 
amongst whom Solleysel was the most cele- 
brated writer ot the seventeenth century ; his 
works were afterwards abridged and trans- 
lated into English by sir William Hope. 
Until the reign of George I. the medical 
care of horses and other domestic animals 
was confided entirely to the classes ot far- 
riers, leeches, and cow-doctors. Considering 
the superior value of animals in this country, 
the former neglect of them would appear 
astonishing, did it not subsist at this moment 
in so considerable a degree ; and that, from 
causes easily ascertainable, but with difficulty 
to be surmounted. The medical system of 
the farriers, as delivered in their books, form- 
ed a strange medley of antient metaphysical 
notions, blended with deductions from the 
vague and uncertain experience of illiterate 
men. Much of it seemed the result of mere 
ignorance and caprice; no little, of pure dis- 
traction. For example, in a case of farcy, I)e 
Grey orders the medicine to be administered 
to the ears of the horse, and stiched up there- 
FARRIERY. 
in. In case of lameness a turf was to be cut 
and secreted; and in proportion as the turt 
decayed and wasted, so would the lameness ! 
Various of their operations, in which no sha- 
dow of reason orpossible utility seems discern- 
ible, were pursued with measures of horrible 
barbarity; for example, in Markham, the 
cure by the fire or knife for the tailing oi the 
crest ! These men seem to have exhausted 
their wits in the discovery ot ingenious and 
know ing feats of cruelty ; and it is a phrase 
with Markham, ‘ other torments there are.’ 
The art of shoeing the horse had retrograded 
from the original practice ot the Italian far- 
riers, which, however imperfect, yet formed 
a sufficient outline for a rational system. It 
had become the universal practice to pare 
away the frog and soles of the horse’s foot ; 
and by way of making amends tor such loss ot 
substance, to substitute a shoe of massive 
iron, so long as to project beyond the heels. 
It must however be acknowledged, that far 
more rational practice obtained amongst those 
who had the superintendance ot that peculiar 
species of horses appropriated to the business 
of the turf, not only with respe&t to shoeing, 
but every other branch of management ; and 
as the foreign and racing species has been 
the grand source of improvement for our 
British saddle and coach breeds; so the jockey 
system of equitation and general treatment of 
the horse, allowing its progressively amend- 
ing defects, has ever possessed a characteristic 
and acknowledged superiority in this country . 
Such was the state of farriery and veterinary 
practice in the early part of the eighteenth 
century, w'hen the former, or horse medicine 
and surgery, attracted the attention of Wm. 
Gibson, who had acted in queen Anne’s 
wars as an army-surgeon, and appears by his 
writings to have been a man of much practical 
knowledge and sound judgment. He was the 
first regular professional man who attempted 
to imprrive veterinary science, which he ef- 
fected in a plain and popular way, grounded 
on the analogy between the human and brute 
physiology, in course between human and ani- 
mal medicine. The appearance of Gibson’s 
book on farriery forms an era in veterinary 
annals ; and his system in fundamentals has 
ever been, and is at this moment, the basis 
of our superior veterinary practice. He lived 
to publish a new edition of his chief work, 
about the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. Dr. Bracken, a physician of Lan- 
caster, a vulgar, desultory, captious, and 
petulant writer, yet a profound and en- 
lightened reasoner, and of great ability in 
his profession, in a few years followed the 
laudable example ot Gibson, and turned 
his attention to veterinary medicine. He 
was an exquisite practical judge of the animal 
on which he treated; and his work on far- 
riery is a standard with respect to the jockey 
or peculiar English system, a branch which 
had been left untouched by Gibson. Bart- 
let, a surgeon in Bow-street, Covent-garden, 
w as a most respectable, intelligent, and use- 
ful compiler from Gibson and Bracken, whose 
labours he circumscribed and improved. He 
also first introduced the new, but hypotheti- 
cal and impracticable, system ot short shoe- 
ing, which had then lately been promulgated 
in France by the sieur La Fosse, a farrier of 
considerable science, and a great practical 
veterinary anatomist. Bartlet candidly gave 
the rules of La Fosse for shoeing horses. 
without pretending to any great practical 
knowledge of the subject; and these rules, 
speculative as they were, had yet the bene- 
ficial effect of operating a considerable im- 
provement on English practice. Fortunate- 
ly the affair w as soon after taken in hand by 
William Osmer, a surgeon and a sportsman, 
who had great practical knowledge of the 
horse, and particularly of the race-horse, that 
species which, whilst it improves every other, 
requires the greatest attention, and in an espe- , 
cial manner with regard to shoeing and the j 
treatment of the feet. Osmer commenced 
veterinary surgeon, and published an excel- i 
lent and practical, although whimsically writ- 
ten book on horse-shoeing, in which he re- ] 
duced the speculative rules of La Fosse to 
the standard of his own and of English expe- 
rience. His book has not probably been 
hitherto excelled in point of utility ; and : 
being written in a plain and popular way, is I 
adapted to the capacities of shoeing-smiths. j 
The earl of Pembroke also wrote a short and 
excellent treatise on the same subject, prac- 1 
tical horse-shoeing and case of the feet, and 
on the education of the military horse. Be- j 
renger, about the same time, published a re- j 
spectable work on the grand manege. Mr. 
Clarke, the king’s farrier for Scotland, has 
published two valuable treatises on shoeing, j 
and on prevention of the diseases of horses. 
To revert to the commencement of the 
Gibsonian era. It is to be lamented that the 
success with which Gibson’s and Bracken’s j 
improved farriery was attended did not sti- j 
nrulate the attempts of some regular medical 
men to undertake the improvement of veteri- I 
nary practice in favour of our other domes- 1 
tic animals, and to deliver them and their 
proprietors from barbarous and illiterate j 
leech-craft. Doubtless a want of encourage- 
ment must be looked upon as one of the | 
chief causes of this defect. A book indeed 
appeared about the middle of the eighteenth 
century, under the name of Topham, treat- i 
ing ot the disease of horned cattle, but it : 
proved to be merely a compilation, in which! 
how’ever were collected some useful hints ] 
with respect to management. As Gibson’s -j 
Farriery had given rise to a great number | 
of compilations, so Topham’s book served I 
the same purpose to the cow-doctors, many | 
of whom copied Topham word for word, and 
boldly published these excerpts as the re- ; 
suit of their own long experience and prac- 
tice. Such has proved to be almost inva- 
riably the deceptive practice of this descrip- 
tion of writers; whence the great number of 
similar publications, and the constant well- j 
founded complaints against them. Mr. Law- 
rence, in his late General Treatise on Cattle, 
has taken the pains to ascertain various facts 
of this kind, and lias given the outline of a ' 
national system of veterinary practice, cal- 
culated for cattle and sheep, recommending 
the pursuit to medical men, and the liberal : 
encouragement of such to the proprietors of 
cattle, and particularly to the agricultural.; 
societies. 
The eighteenth century was abundantly 
fruitful in veterinary pursuits and publica- 
tions. France took the leacfc^ but a zeal for 
the improvement of this branch of science 
also pervaded Germany and the northern 
states, and colleges were established in va- 
rious countries, wherein the science has been 
since regularly cultivated. Baron Haller 
