450 
REVIEW-THE FARMERS GUIDE. 
But what have we here? Sulphuric acid and corrosive sub¬ 
limate, each of them a corroding, torturing caustic. Does 
any decomposition take place, any neutralization of their dreadful 
power? No; the chlorine is too firmly united to the mercury for 
the sulphuric acid to effect any change in it; and two of the 
most horribly destructive applications which a demon could 
select are mingled together—the strength of the one is added 
to that of the other. The operator waits until the bleeding sub¬ 
sides, that the parts may be fairly denuded and exposed; and then 
these hellish ingredients are poured over the aching, sensitive 
surface that he had just been mangling. For shame, Mr. Webb ; 
for shame! 
We turn to the second part of the work, in which the diseases 
of cattle are treated of; and we stumble on an explanation of 
the barrenness of some cows, new to us, and a point of anatomy, 
also new to us. “ It is a notorious fact, that many thriving cows, 
for many years past, after going to the bull have not conceived. 
I have been induced to use every means in my power to inves¬ 
tigate the cause ; and I have discovered, beyond a doubt, and will 
prove, that it proceeds from an inflamed state of the blood, which 
affects the generative organs that are connected with the euterus 
(womb), and which causes irritation and frequent excitement for 
the bull; but the cow cannot conceive, in consequence of the 
deranged state of the seminal arteries 7 ’! ! 
There is one sentence at the close of this section, which we can 
only understand on the supposition that Mr. Webb is deeply 
versed in the celestial art of Moore, the prince of astrologists. 
His title-page is dated 1834; his introduction is dated January, 
1834; and this portion of the work, according to our knowledge 
of the mysteries of the press, and that is no slight one, must 
have been written in the preceding October, or November at the 
latest; yet Mr. Webb writes, “ 1 would, however, this season, 
1834, particularly recommend bleeding as well as purging.” 
Fy ! fy ! this is quackery with a vengeance, unless, in truth, 
he is the wonderful man alluded to by Chaucer : 
“ With us there was a dooteur of phisike. 
In all this world lie was ther non him like 
To speke of phisike and of surgerie. 
For he w as grounded in astronomic.” 
In p. 158 Mr. Webb “pledges his word, that he has never 
failed to cure the redwater when promptly called at the same 
time he adds, “ the vast number of cows that have died of red- 
water within the last three years it is grievous to consider.” 
And how is he able to do all this? Why, he says, “1 consider 
myself the first man that introduced the practice of bleeding for 
