IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. 
581 
skill; but if the poor beast labours under some serious disorder, 
which, by the help of the ignorance of the cowleech, carries 
him off, he is not in the least abashed or disquieted, but finds 
some particular cause of death, which the most talented could 
not have detected, and, consequently, could not have avoided. 
If, towards the close of the affair, a veterinary surgeon is called 
in, too late to administer any assistance, and the death of the 
animal is rapidly approaching, the cowleech takes refuge behind 
the inability of the other to perform miracles, and, to preserve 
his own reputation, takes care to calumniate the regular prac- 
titioner. He often carries his impudence so far as to say, that 
if he had been left alone the animal would not have died. 
If the disease is to any considerable degree acute and intense, 
the animal never or very rarely survives ; this man, therefore, 
always gives an unfavourable prognosis, knowing well that, if the 
prognosis should be wrong, he will have greater praise for having- 
saved an animal condemned to die than for curing one that had 
little the matter with him : but, I repeat it, these cures are ex- 
ceedingly rare, even supposing that the affection was sufficiently 
slight to enable nature to triumph over the disease and the 
remedy ; for the empiric takes care to render his prognostic true, 
by cramming the animal to satiety with every kind of food that 
it will take. During their convalescence, also, their food is 
forced upon them beyond all measure ; and the feebleness of the 
digestive organs at this period produces affections which compli- 
cate themselves with the disease, not altogether conquered, and 
inevitably destroy the animal. The proprietor will never com- 
plain that the cowleech is over-feeding his patient, and the vete- 
rinary surgeon can seldom obtain that restricted diet on which 
all hope of success depends ; for the greatest fear that the pro- 
prietor has, is that his beast will die of hunger. I will cite one 
case out of a thousand, and which happened to me at the com- 
mencement of my practice. 
Towards the end of 1824, I was requested to attend a mare 
that was foundered all round. She had been suffered to eat 
ravenously of grains and wheat. I saw at once that the ordi- 
nary means of treatment — bleeding, poultices, &c. — would effect 
a cure; but she was eager for food, and it was with great diffi- 
culty that I could get her placed on a restricted diet ; in fact, 
after a little while, I could not accomplish my object at all — - 
the manger was always full, in despite of all that I could say or 
do. The consequence was, that the animal was soon on her 
litter, and could not possibly get up. I was, after much resist- 
ance, suffered to have my own way ; and by dint of starvation, 
and proper medicine and appliances, she was got once more on 
her feet. Do you think that this proof was sufficient to warn 
him of his error! No! but in a few days, from the folly of the 
VOL. xiv. 4 G 
