EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
52 
ON THE SCIENCE OF BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY 
MEDICINE. 
It is with unalloyed gratification we direct the attention 
of our readers to the first of a series of papers on “ Botany 
as applied to Veterinary Science,” by Mr. Watson, 
M.R.C.V.S. For years we have held but one opinion as to 
the value and importance of this science in connexion with 
veterinary medicine, and have gone so far as to assert that we 
thought it of even greater moment than as connected with 
human medicine, with which from the very earliest ages it 
has been associated. This circumstance, in all probability, 
arose from most of the therapeutic agents in olden time being 
of vegetable origin. Chemicals have now, however, to a 
large extent, supplanted the use of Galenicals. Still, from 
vegetables we continue to derive many medicinal substances, 
especially those which contain the active principles of plants, 
which is effected by the aid of chemistry. 
But the principal reason why we have always advocated 
an acquaintance with botany, is the fact, that most of the 
animals which come under the care of the veterinary surgeon 
feed on vegetables or their products ; and although nature 
has given to animals instinct by which they generally avoid 
that which would prove prejudicial to them, yet occasion¬ 
ally, when pressed by hunger, or when excited by fondness 
for a particular plant, or when it has become accidentally 
mixed with others by which its deleterious properties have 
been hidden, it is well known that they will eat thereof, 
and death, in many instances, has been the result. Again, 
in the prevailing love among stablemen, carters, &c., for 
getting or keeping their horses in condition, as they designate 
it, how frequently is it the case that certain herbs or plants 
are resorted to by them, and being given in large quantities, 
although for a time with seeming impunity, nevertheless in 
the end they prove destructive of life. To this may be 
added the occasional malicious administration of such as are 
known to be poisonous. Nor must it be forgotten that vege¬ 
tables, by different modes of culture, soil, and climate, have 
