STATE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
•3G9 
improved ; and that if the anatomy of the horse was better 
understood, little or nothing was known with regard to the power 
and effects of medicine. 
In an account of the Veterinary College, from its institution 
in 1791, it is complained of, that the “treatment of our cattle 
hath been universally restricted to those who are the most 
remarkably unqualified to undertake the charge.” And, speak- 
ing of the time when the care of the human health was entrusted 
to the barber, it is stated, “ that at that period medicine was 
nearly in the same state in which we see the veterinary art at 
this day.” “The incompetency of the persons (it is further 
stated) to whom it has been abandoned, has drawn contempt 
upon the art itseir.’ > Is not this a deplorable picture of the 
state of the science ? Still in the hands of blacksmiths, who 
were boldly mangling the organized parts of the body without 
knowing any thing of its structure — looked on with contempt 
by the respectable portion of society, and the laughing-stock of 
the medical profession. 
I extract from a work from which its title would lead us to 
expect great things, a specimen of the state of veterinary medi- 
cine*. The author, speaking of inflammation of the lungs, 
says, “ In these cases you must not be too busy with the lancet. 
We advise no blood to be drawn on any account. The method 
of practice here laid down, we flatter ourselves will be found 
more useful than any yet offered by other authors, if strictly 
adhered to.” The following is one of the recipes for pneumonia. 
Take elecampane root and Florentine orris, of each three ounces, 
in gross powder ; boil them in twelve pints of water to eight 
pints ; then strain it, and add gum ammoniac four ounces, dis- 
solved in a pint and a quarter of good vinegar ; honey two 
pounds ; Russia castor, gentian root, and savin, in powder, of 
each one drachm and a half : boil them and skim off the froth, 
and strain. Every morning, noon, and night, give the horse a 
pint of it, either blood warm, or cold, as it is immaterial whether 
warm or not. “This,” says the author, “will incite tough 
phlegm, open the obstruction of the bronchia of the lungs, 
and may be much depended on in shortness of breath and 
wheezing ; and, if properly applied, may put a stop to the disease 
commonly called broken wind, in horses, if taken in time.” 
Of its efficacy in these particulars, I leave your readers to 
determine. 
To shew what was the state of anatomy and physiology about 
this period, I extract a paragraph, the more valuable, because 
* See the Classical Farrier, by W. Merrick, 1 788, p. 212. 
VOL. IX. 3 c 
