446 
♦REVIEW-THE FARMERS GUIDE. 
that we opened with much interest this first systematic “Treatise” 
that we had ever seen on the Diseases of Horses and Cattle, by a 
practitioner north of the Tweed. Although it professes to be 
“ A Treatise on the Management of Breeding Mares and Cows,” 
O O * 
the greater and the more important part of the work is devoted 
to a consideration of the nature and causes and treatment of the 
diseases generally of these animals. We confess, however, that we 
were somewhat startled when, perusing the introduction, in which 
a little too much had previously been said of the author’s “ study 
and practical science,” we found the following recommendation 
to his readers: “I, therefore, hope that those who may have 
occasion to use any of the means I have prescribed, in whatever 
case it may be, will follow the directions exactly as they are 
given ; not to omit any part, either in bleeding or administering 
medicine — how contrary soever it may seem to their own 
ideas (! !); for I have given no prescriptions but such as I have 
tried, and proved to be uniformly successful.” This was so con¬ 
trary to our notions of good practice, as consisting in the aban¬ 
donment of specific nostrums, and carefully and anxiously adapt¬ 
ing our treatment to the daily, hourly change in the character of 
disease—it appeared so much like the language of those who, 
pretending to know every thing and never to fail, actually know 
nothing at all, and are continually blundering, that we had 
nearly laid down the book in disgust. We, however, turned to 
Mr. Webb’s account of the diseases of horses, and we took the 
first— strangles , for which the effectual application of a turnip- 
poultice with some hog’s*lard in it is recommended. To this 
follows the account of another disease, called the bastard 
strangi.es, and “ which is much more dangerous, and many 
young horses have died in consequence of it—in which matter 
forms in the inside of the throat, and the adjacent parts become 
so much swelled and inflamed that the animal can hardly breathe, 
and there is a considerable degree of fever,” and in which, very 
properly, bleeding is recommended ; but the principal reliance is 
on the following medicine, which “ is well calculated to check 
fever, and to strengthen the stomach, viz. Peruvian bark half an 
ounce, nitre one ounce, and honey four ounces, given in a bottle 
of chamomile tea, the throat being fomented with warm water 
frequently, and well rubbed with hog’s lard.” 
We quote from our author, and we shall generally leave him 
without comment. 
In the next page it is recommended to “ burn out the lampas 
with a hot iron, and to rub the part with a little salt.” 
The following luminous description of glanders beats all that 
John Hinds, or Ephraim Blaine, or J. C. Knowlson, ever wrote :— 
“ Glanders is known by a discharge from the nostrils, and a 
