THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
vol. m. 
NOVEMBER, 1830. 
No. 
S5. 
MR. YOUATT’S VETERINARY LECTURES. 
As we have made arrangements for giving regular insertion 
to Mr. Youatt's veterinary lectures, we think it proper to include 
his introductory one, although somewhat similar to that which 
appeared in our numbers for December 1828 and January 1829. 
At what period the diseases of domestic animals first became 
a distinct subject of study and practice, the records of ancient 
times do not inform us. Motives of humanity and interest would 
induce the possessors of the horse, and sheep, and cattle to 
think in what manner their usefulness might be increased, their 
diseases remedied, and their lives prolonged; but ages would 
probably pass away before knowledge of this kind would be di¬ 
gested into a scientific form and studied as a profession. If we 
are to believe the legends of olden times, Chiron the Centaur, 
the preceptor of ACseulapius the god of medicine, practised both 
human and veterinary surgery. His pupil, disdaining the alliance 
of the humbler art, confined his researches to the treatment of 
the ills of the human frame; and early history, for many a cen¬ 
tury, is silent as to the progress or even the existence of veterinary 
science. We find, however, that in the fifth century before 
Christ the study of the structure and diseases of domestic ani- 
mals was fashionable in the country in which then seemed to be 
concentrated all the learning of the age. Hippocrates the father 
of medicine, and Xenophon the leader oi the ten thousand, 
wrote on the veterinary art. The first, in accordance with his 
own profession, composed a valuable treatise on veterinary me¬ 
dicine, and including all the objects of the veterinarian s care. 
The latter, a soldier, confined himself principally to the general 
management of the horse , with a few medical hints, but those re¬ 
lating chiefly to the treatment of the feet. We may gather from 
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