HISTORY OF THE VETERINARY COLLEGE. 99 
means, hath remained unimproved; but, notwithstanding* the 
frequent complaints, which are justified by the losses sustained, 
the treatment of our cattle, of so much importance to the pros¬ 
perity of our country, hath been universally restricted to those 
who are the most remarkably unqualified to undertake the 
charge. That the shoer of a horse should, by virtue of his 
trade, become equal to a task which, in order to its being 
perfectly performed, would require the skill of an Harvey and 
a Boerhaave, appears a paradox which could have gained credit 
only in an age of general ignorance and barbarism* when, in¬ 
deed, medicine had to encounter enemies not much less for¬ 
midable than those which have obstructed the advancement of 
the veterinary art. It does, however, no where appear, that 
absurdity ever rose to such a height as to consider the care of 
the human health as the proper office of the shoemaker. There 
was a time, indeed, when much was confided to the barber ; and 
at that period medicine was nearly in the same state in which we 
see the veterinary art at this day. 
The incompetency of the persons to whom it has been aban¬ 
doned has drawn contempt upon the art itself; and few have 
ventured to concern themselves with a profession that seemed 
incapable of conferring any honour upon those who exercised it. 
But the benefits of medicine to man, in the state in which it 
exists at this day, and in this country, are evident to every in¬ 
genuous mind. To extend those benefits to those parts of the 
animal creation that are destined for the use of mankind, is the 
object of veterinary medicine ; and as the sphere of human me¬ 
dicine is of larg'e extent, and embraces much more than the art 
of healing alone, so does that of veterinary medicine likewise 
comprise many important parts of natural history, and the fun¬ 
damental principles of natural philosophy: “ Sicut animalia 
post hominem, ita ars veterinaria post medicinam secunda est.” > 
The law s of the animal economy of our cattle are as various 
and as intricate as those of our own ; and if to preserve them 
alive, and in the most thriving state, be one of our first concerns, 
we ought, in consistency, to proceed towards that object by a 
path capable of conducting us to it. And here it may be ob¬ 
served, that the arts of surgery and of human medicine alone 
can render very little service in cases of veterinary practice; 
while, on the other hand, they may be, and frequently are, the 
sources of error. The materia medica, an instrument which the 
physician can use expertly in cases of human malady, is con¬ 
verted into weapons, to whose power he is almost totally a 
stranger, when he w ould employ them against the diseases of 
brute animals. It is not sufficient to increase the bulk of a dose 
