492 
IMPORTANCE OF THE VETERINARY ART. 
Even parturition, so perfectly the work of nature in beasts of prey, 
is often attended with the same difficulty and danger in domes¬ 
tic animals that take place in women. Of this Dr. Bland has 
mentioned some remarkable instances in his Observations upon 
Human and Comparative Parturition. Similar instances have 
been communicated to me by Dr. Dewees, as having occurred 
under his notice while he practised midwifery in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Philadelphia. 
2d. We are bound to study the diseases of domestic animals, 
and the remedies that are proper to cure them, by a principle of 
gratitude. They live only for our benefit. They cost us no¬ 
thing in wages or clothing. They require, in exchange for their 
labour and all other advantages we derive from them, nothing 
from us but food and shelter, and these of the cheapest and 
coarsest kind, so that there is constantly due to them an immense 
balance of debt from us. This motive to take care of their health 
and lives will appear more striking, when we consider the specific 
benefits we receive from each of them. The horse is not only an 
important appendage, but a necessary part of the cement of civi¬ 
lized society. He ploughs our fields—he drags home our har¬ 
vests and fruits to our barns and cellars—he conveys them from 
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distant countries, over rough and difficult roads, to our market 
towns and sea-ports—he receives in exchange from them the 
products of foreign nations, and conveys them to the interior and 
remote parts of our country—he keeps up the inland connexion 
between different states by means of stages and posts, and thus 
favours the quick communication of intelligence, and the increase 
of national intercourse, commerce, and happiness—he adminis¬ 
ters to our health and to our pleasures under the saddle and in 
harness—he keeps up society and friendship in neighbourhoods 
too scattered in its population to admit of visits on foot. In 
vain would country churches and courts be opened without the 
strength of this noble animal; nor could the great system of 
representative government be supported in an agricultural coun¬ 
try, unless he conveyed the elector to the place of suffrage. In 
maintaining the freedom and independence of nations, the horse 
bears a distinguished part. When caparisoned with the furni¬ 
ture of war, he feels w T ith his rider the courage and the pride of 
arms. In the race, he delights us with his swiftness, in which 
he exceeds all four-footed animals. Nor let us forget his saga¬ 
city in discovering roads, and chusing the safest parts of them, 
when inattention or darkness has rendered his rider or driver un¬ 
able to discover them. In the physician’s midnight excursion to 
visit the sick, how often has his horse conducted him in safety 
(and sometimes overcome by sleep) through imperceptible paths. 
