VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
333 
On the 23cl, her throat was very much swollen, and the cow 
was troubled to swallow. I released two stitches in the centre 
of the wound, kept the part fomented with warm water; after 
which the swelling subsided, and the cow fed without any 
difficulty. 
In seven days a sloughing took place, after which the wound 
assumed a healthy appearance and gradually closed, and the 
animal is going on w'ell at the present time. 
VETERIIVARY SCIENCE BEFORE THE TIME OF 
BOURGELAT. 
Let us open Aldovrandus, that incomparable naturalist; Con¬ 
rad ; Gesner, surnamed the Pliny of Germany; and that curious 
collection entitled ‘^Scriptores rei rusticse veteres.” These 
compilers have extracted every thing that was to be found in the 
works of the Greeks and Latins. But what do they offer us 
but an assemblage of fragments of science scattered through a 
mass of worthless dross ? What do they prove, but the strange 
extent to which men of the greatest genius will sometimes 
wander? Who would have believed that Aristotle would have 
affirmed that horses drink muddy water, in order the better to fill 
their veins? or that Xenophon would judge of the paces of the 
horse by the height of his hoofs, or his temperament and qua¬ 
lities by the length of his ears? 
If we pass into Italy, what a mass of erudition does the w'ork 
of Pascal Caracciolo present! True veterinary knowledge and 
practice are lost in an immense abyss of historical facts. He 
gives the history of Bucephalus, Pegasus, and Arion; he de¬ 
scribes the armour of the ancients—the soldiers of Alexander— 
the attachment of Caligula to his horse, and of the horse of 
Nicomedes to him—the chariot of Pompey drawn by elephants 
—the eloquence of Cicero—the address and agility of the Nu- 
midians—the origin of the name of the Moon, and I know not 
what I It would take a volume to enumerate all that that 
book recounts. 
History is not more favourable to the English veterinarians. 
Some of them denied the existence of the brain—others filled 
the sole with salt and bran in cases of apoplexy—some groomed 
the horse well with an iron comb, to remove constipation—others 
cauterized the flank for diseases of the sjileen—and others pre¬ 
scribed effectual remedies for diseases of the horse’s gall-bladder. 
We pass in silence the German authors, distinguished only 
by their great prolixity ; and we examine, but humiliating to our 
VOL. VI ii. z z 
