THE IMPORTANCE OF THE VETERINARY ART. 191 
The deplorable state of farriery, considered as a branch of 
natural knowledge, has long been a subject of lamentation; 
destitute, in general, of either principle or reason, and playing 
with instruments and poisons like a madman with fire. The 
good sense of the nation has, at length, caught the alarm; the 
art itself is suspected, and its practitioners distrusted : and al¬ 
though some of late date, desirous of bringing it some ready 
relief, have brought to it principles wdiich they have drawn from 
their knowledge of the human system, yet, however good their 
intentions may be, they have, in many instances, only served to 
introduce new errors, inasmuch as the laws of the several animal 
economies are by no means always uniform, but are found to 
be often different from, and sometimes contrary to each other. 
To reason thus analogically from the man to the horse, is as 
preposterous and as insufficient as to conduct a disease in man 
merely by a knowledge of the structure of brutes. 
It is necessary to make a special and accurate investigation 
of the economv itself—the different effects w'hich the different 
V 
subjects of the materia medica have upon it; and to repeat these 
inquiries with the same exactness with respect to every animal 
that may be considered a natural object of the art. 
A plan of study like this requires leisure and competence, and 
is far beyond either the capacity or the circumstances of those 
to whom farriery has been hitherto abandoned; and yet, such is 
the importance of the art, that a course of studies as long and 
as circumstantial is indispensable for those who w’ould fully, 
fairly, and honourably engage in the exercise of it. 
Its importance cannot.be called in question, as it is in direct 
proportion to the importance of the objects on which it is em¬ 
ployed. The value of our cattle is the infallible rule by which 
to estimate the value of the art; and w^hen to their intrinsic 
value is added, that which they derive from their caducity, w^e 
must allow that art, whose office it is to preserve them in a con¬ 
dition wherein we may deduce from them all the benefit that 
they are capable of procuring, as to be in itself well deserving 
our concern and esteem. 
If we consider its present state in this country, under its ap¬ 
pellation of farriery, w^e see it in as deplorable a situation as 
was the art of medicine during; the barbarous centuries when 
the gross ignorance of its professors brought a disgrace upon the 
art itself; and when many diseases, which now yield readily to 
a judicious treatment, raged without controul. Yet that the 
veterinary art, like the art of medicine in the hands of philoso¬ 
phical and judicious persons, may be raised to respect and 
esteem, we see by the example of ancient times, and by the 
