AT THE VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
805 
flocks and herds. Kings and princes were shepherds. We con- 
stantly read of cattle and sheep and camels and asses. The horse 
is spoken of as existing in Egypt, although principally used in the 
chase, or for the purposes of war. These animals must then, as 
now, be subject to disease ; and it is impossible to doubt that va- 
rious means were studied and known, by which the maladies of 
these horses, so valuable to the owners, might be cured, and their 
lives prolonged. The Chinese claim the possession of much valu- 
able knowledge respecting the treatment of human and brute dis- 
ease, more than 4900 years ago, or within a century after the 
creation of the world according to our calculation. Some of these 
works are said to be now extant, and to be regarded, and to be 
considered, as of undoubted authority. He recollected a Chinese 
work — describing supposed ancient practice — to have been shewn 
to him by one of the professors in Paris ; but his attention was then 
directed to more important objects, and he did not take much 
trouble in examining it. 
In another country vying with China in antiquity — Egypt, with 
its pyramids and catacombs, its aqueducts and its temples — the 
labour which was bestowed on these noble remains of art was 
chiefly exacted from inferior animals and from slaves; but we 
read of the horses and the chariots of Egypt, most numerous and 
valuable. The preservation of the health of these animals would 
not be neglected. Medicine was there cultivated as a science, and 
that many a century before the history of Greece had begun, or 
Athens or Rome were thought of. The horsemen of Egypt and 
the herdsmen or shepherds are particularly spoken of. The horses 
were particularly valued for the chase and for war ; and humanity 
and attention to the comfort and the wants of every quadruped 
formed an important article in all the most ancient laws. The 
deities of those times were supposed to have taken upon them- 
selves, occasionally, the forms of some of the domesticated animals. 
The dog and the bull were particularly reverenced on that account, 
and this would go far to secure every kindness and attention to 
them, and medical care among the rest. 
By-and-by, Greece began to be peopled, and its inhabitants, by 
degrees, were civilized. 1200 years before Christ, Chiron lived, 
VOL. XII. 5 N 
