344 
CURSORY REMARKS ON 
dies in brutes ; more certain and more useful than those we have 
just now spoken of; invented, it is said, by Chiron the Centaur, 
and illustrated by those distinguished writers, Columella, Cato, 
Varro, Pellagonius, and Vegetius. However, these modern phy- 
sicians of ours, with their bedizened fingers, are not ashamed to 
be quite ignorant of this art, and to despise it. Such is their 
fastidious delicacy, that, like the bird called the lapwing, they 
appear to find no pleasure except in human excrement; for if 
any one were to ask one of them for a cure for his ass or his ox, 
he would stand a good chance of receiving an affront instead of 
a remedy, as if it were not their business not only to cure men, 
but every other animal (especially all such as are serviceable to 
mankind). On which account, Alphonso, king of Arragon, 
maintained, with a most liberal salary, two skilful doctors for 
his horses and his dogs, and ordered them most diligently to 
ascertain what remedies and modes of treatment were most ap- 
plicable to the various diseases of beasts ; in obedience to which 
command, they produced a book upon these subjects of infinite 
utility. In later times, the same thing was done by John Ruelle, 
a Parisian, a person eminent for his attainments in both the 
learned languages ; a distinguished physiologist as well, who 
translated a volume, very much required, on the diseases of horses, 
and their remedies, from the oldest authors ; — to wit, Apsirchus, 
Hierocles, Theomnestus, Palagonius, Anatolius, Tiberius, Eume- 
lus, Archedamus, Hippocrates, Hemerius, Africanus, and from 
Emilius, the Spaniard, and Litorius of Beneventum; a book that 
will be of infinite service to all veterinary surgeons, and attended 
with incalculable advantage to the public generally. 
January Number, 1837. — The following little anecdote cannot 
instruct ; it may not amuse ; but it will shew the faith we 
sportsmen are in the habit of reposing on the dicta of men of 
character in your profession. Some fifteen years or more back, 
I spent the month of October at Moreton Hall, near Congleton, 
Cheshire, the seat of the late George Ackers, Esq. of coaching 
notoriety, and accompanied him on the bench of his well-ap- 
pointed drag to Newcastle-under-Lyne, where he had some 
business to transact. Being about to replenish my stud, I 
inquired if there was a veterinary surgeon in the town ? The 
answer to which question was, tl Yes; there is Mr. Mayer, one 
of the cleverest men in his profession .” — “ He is the man for 
me, then,” said I to myself ; and, taking the liberty of knock- 
ing at his door — and a liberty it certainly was — I asked him if 
he could oblige me by informing me where there was a good 
hunter on sale? “ If you do not object to a mare,” said he, “ I 
have one by Castrcl, which will carry your weight well.” 
