’444 MR. youatt’s introductory lecture 
sional employment about the horse^ had gradually obtained the 
sole management of him. 
' The farrier, for such was the name by which he was designated, 
from the metal on which he worked, had totally usurped the place 
of the veterinary surgeon; and, with a wrong-headedness scarcely 
credible, had, both in principle and in practice, discarded almost 
every thing that was valuable. His skill consisted in the per¬ 
formance of a few cruel and butcher-like operations, and in the 
possession of prescriptions, ridiculous, unchemical, injurious, and 
which were employed empirically and blindly in every ailment 
and in every stage of disease. 
The treatment of cattle and other domestic animals was con¬ 
signed to the shepherd and the herdsman, few of whom could 
read or write, or it was adopted by a nondescript being yclept a 
cowleech, and proverbial for his ignorance and barbarity. 
At length the light of knowledge began to dawn on this worse 
than Cimmerian darkness. Several continental states established 
schools for the education of the veterinarian, and, thirty-eight 
years ago, Mr. John Hunter and Mr. Cline laid the foundation of 
the college at St. Pancras. 
From that period the character and condition of the practitioner 
of veterinary medicine has gradually and materially improved. 
The rank of commissioned officer, when appointed to a cavalry 
regiment, has given him a station in society to which he did not 
before dare to aspire; and many veterinarians have obtained the 
confidence of the public by scientific attainments and honourable 
practice. Much has been done, but all has not been accom¬ 
plished which the excellent founders of the veterinary school had 
expected. 
During the last thirty years, what a dearth of good or even 
tolerable veterinary publications have we ? About that period we 
had the very ingenious and splendid work of our professor on the 
foot of the horse, but to this succeeded a long and dreary waste,— 
a second night of farrier’s darkness. 
Of those who are gone, we have Mr. Peall’s Lectures,” rich 
in sound principle and scientific practice, but in which precision 
is sometimes sacrificed to the imperfect comprehension of the 
amateur. 
Of living writers we have Mr. Richard Lawrence on the 
Structure and CEconomy of the Horse,” excellent so far as it goes, 
and holding out the promise, unfortunately for the autlior and the 
profession not accomplished, of something better hereafter. 
Mr. Goodwin, sen. on the foot, contains a fund of information on 
the ceconomy of the foot, and the history and principles of shoeing. 
Mr. Bracy Clark has favoured us with several pamphlets on 
