380 
MEMORABILIA. 
MEMORABILIA. 
By Mr. Horsburgh, Veterinary Surgeon. 
Sir, — Solomon says, “ there is nothing new under the sun/’ 
and Solomon being said to have been a wise man, we must 
believe Solomon. Some of us have doubts that locomotive 
engines on railroads, going at fifty miles an hour, steam ships 
circumnavigating the globe, or Minie rifles sending a piece 
of lead through an enemy’s head at five hundred yards dis- 
tant, were ever in existence before our time. Yet John Silk 
Buckingham tells me, he saw, in the Temple of Baleck, two 
stones, each seventy feet long, sixteen feet broad, and twelve 
feet thick, hewn, polished, and carved ; yet they are in as 
good preservation as when they were made; also one cut 
from the quarry, distant from the temple about three miles, 
which is two feet longer in its rough state. We doubt at 
present, with all our mechanical improvements, if w r e could 
cut out of a quarry, carry three miles, hew, carve, polish, 
and set up such blocks; but yet, we may see the day 
perhaps, when extraordinary things like this will be 
done. 
Some hundred or tw r o of years ago, our farriers had about 
a dozen nails put into a round piece of w ood, for the purpose 
of hammering them into the hock-joint of the poor unfortu- 
nate horse, w-hich misfortune, or its own unnecessary exertions, 
affected with spavin. When I attended the classes, about 
twenty years ago, this instrument was shown, by our pro- 
fessor, to his class, with the greatest derision. Now r , this 
old instrument appears in a new form, for the same purpose, 
being made of steel instead of wood and iron, and sold by 
our surgical instrument makers, who expect every noddy 
who happens to get a diploma, to purchase one, wdien furnish- 
ing out his hit for practice. A few years ago an insurance 
company for cattle w as established in London, one of the 
terms imposed on insurers of young stock was, that calves, 
from six weeks old to — I forget how T many years, w 7 ere to wear 
a hair seaton, ornamentally dangling from their dewlap, to 
prevent them taking blackleg ; such artificial drain on the 
system being to prevent them getting too fat, which, it 
would appear, might bring among them that fatal disease. 
None of our farmers would try such nonsense, they had a 
better plan of keeping them lean, if that would do any good : 
they could stop the supplies, so they thought there was no use 
