614 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
excellent application for the removal of superfluous hairs ! 
Celsus, as a cure for epilepsy, mentions the warm blood of a 
recently slain gladiator, or a certain quantity of human or 
horse flesh to be given. While others advocate some blood 
taken from the tip of the tail of a black cat. Writers on 
demonology assure us that three scruples of the ashes of a 
witch, well and carefully burnt at a stake, are a sure 
catholicon against all the evil of witchcraft. 
Roasted toads were extolled as specifics for the gout, and 
the following is the receipt in 'Colborne’s Dispensatory.’ 
“ Put the toads alive into an earthen pot, and dry them in 
an oven moderately heated till they become fit to be 
powdered.” 
An ointment made of toads has been advocated in my time 
for scrofulous swellings ; and I remember an old woman who 
made it. Her method was to place a pipkin over the fire 
containing some lard, and when it began to boil she took the 
poor toad up by the left leg, and, with an affectation of 
mystery, dropped it in and let it boil for some time. 
Again, I anticipate your objection. You will say all these 
expedients were for the human subject and not for the horse. 
Very true, but that similar and equally inconsistent ones 
were resorted to in the practice of veterinary medicine you 
may find abundant proof if you refer to the older writers on 
farriery — as Blunderville, Gervase Markham, Mascal, and 
others. I have* turned down some pages to refer to, but 
time will not permit me to do so, and you will suffer no loss. 
Let us come to comparatively modern times. Not long 
since it was common in Shropshire vrhen a horse w r as 
attacked with spasmodic colic, to lead him to a pond to see 
the water. If this failed to give relief, urine and soot were 
administered to him ; and these proving ineffectual, a chicken 
was killed and the entrails while hot forced down his throat. 
Some persons give dried bees in ale, and others the dung of 
geese in warm milk for this malady. Gin and pepper you 
know to be often given ; but there is no difficulty in assigning 
“ a why and a wherefore” for this. 
To pour boiling oil into fistulae of the poll or w r i thers, w as 
very general among farriers, and some used melted lead 
instead. Or if a caustic were needed, it was a matter of 
indifference to them whether corrosive sublimate, or arsenic 
first presented itself, they being ignorant of the different 
effects produced on the tissues by these substances ; the one 
forming with the albuminoid principles an insoluble com- 
pound, thus limiting its action, while with the other this 
does not take place, and its influence therefore becomes more 
