230 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
articulum in spinam reduction ad dimidium usque rescindes, cara- 
bisque ne commissuram ampates. To them also belongs the 
priority of the immovable bandage in fractures and disloca¬ 
tions. Hierocles prescribes the fusion of a mixture of 
resinous matters, and terminates the chapter by the following 
words: Hoc medicamentum linteo agglutinatum adhibere solet. 
The empiricism of the Roman agronomists who preceded the 
Greek hippiatrists was more enlightened. Celsus has pub¬ 
lished a work on rural economy which has not reached us, 
and it is said that that of Columella is only an abbreviated 
copy of it; and, in fact/ between the contagious malignant 
fevers in men described by Celsus, and those in domestic 
animals by Columella, there is more than one analogy. In 
the second century of the Christian era, veterinary medicine 
by men specially devoted to its practice, was established in 
the Roman empire, and it is supposed with some distinction, 
as Galen lauds twoveterinarysurgeons,Vaenetus and Praesinus, 
Studiosi sectatores equorum stertorce , whose good practice he 
recommends not to be neglected by the Roman doctors. 
That human medicine had considerably excelled the veteri¬ 
nary art we find in written documents; the treatise of 
Publius Vegetius Renatus, who lived in the fourth century, is 
a proof. Vegetius was acquainted with the writings of the 
Greeks, his predecessors; he was more advanced than they, 
and his premises give evidence of a scientific work. He says 
that anatomy is the base of the healing art, but his anatomy 
is far below that of the human doctors of the time, and his 
practice is on a par with the empiricism of Apsywtus. He 
also seems to have had some notions of methodism, of which 
traces are found in his book (Sanguinis, per quam constricta 
minutio laxantur.—Ustio Cauterii, per quod laxata firman tus). 
Vegetius was contemporary with the invasion of the Huns; 
he describes their horses, and also mentions the pesta bovina 
which ravaged the Roman empire, and of which he seems to 
have perfectly seized the contagious characteristics. He 
says, in speaking of the sick oxen, Narnque injiciunt bibendo 
fantes, pascendo herbas, stabulo preesepia .* 
* The first invasion of the cattle plague in Belgium, and other con¬ 
tiguous countries, is reported to have occurred in 1711. If we com¬ 
pare the one of the 4th century with those of a later date we cannot 
fail to recognise its geographical progress as well as its perfect identity; 
all originated from the steppes of Southern Russia, whence the Huns 
came, ^nd the malady followed in their track. Two contemporaries, St. 
Ambrose, and the poet Severus Sanctus, offer us good evidence, the former 
writes : llunni in Alanos, Alani in Gothos, Gothi in TaiJ'alos et Sarmatas 
insurrexerunt, nos quoque in Illyrico-exides p atria, gothorum exilia fecerunt 
et nondum est Jinios qua omnium esset fames lues pariter hominum caterique 
