GLASGOW VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
873 
weariedly employed in improving the breeds of domestic animals. That 
awful catastrophe in the history of the human race known as the fall of 
the Roman Empire, and the night of darkness that followed, have 
deprived us of the greater part of ancient literature. Among other 
losses, we have to deplore that of many works on veterinary medicine, 
the names of whose authors alone remain. Yet enough remains to show 
how carefully the art had been studied, and what progress it had made 
towards the dignity of a science. Upon this subject I would refer to the 
treatises of Marcus Cato, of Terentius Varro, of Columella, of Palladius, 
of Vegetius, and the fragment of Gargilius Martialis—all of which, 
directly or indirectly, deal with the veterinary art. The celebrated 
work of the elder Pliny—Plinius Major—on natural history may also be 
consulted, as throwing light on the veterinary medicine of his day ; so also 
may the philosophic poem of Lucretius—“De Rerum Natura. 55 Every¬ 
one has seen the earlier work of Virgil, in which in immortal verse he 
treats of the breeding and rearing of cattle and horses among the other 
cares of the husbandman. Many have wondered how a poet should 
know so much of such a subject. The wonder abates when we find it 
recorded by Donatus that, after completing a course of medicine and 
mathematics, the youthful poet studied veterinary surgery for a con¬ 
siderable time, was employed in the stables of Augustus Cmsar, and 
was ffrst brought under the notice of that emperor by his skill in 
the art. On the fall of the Roman Empire, veterinary medicine, like 
other departments of science, ceased to be cultivated, and for a long 
period fell into the position of a handicraft, in which smiths, shepherds, 
or herdsmen empirically practised such treatment as tradition taught or 
experience suggested. It was about this time that the blacksmith or 
farrier came to the front and began to assert himself as the great depo¬ 
sitary of the veterinary art. In classic antiquity, horses were not usually 
shod with iron ; and even when metal was used for that purpose, it was 
commonly fastened to the hoof, not with nails, but with thongs or latchets 
like a sandal. It was among the barbaric hordes which overran the 
Roman Empire, that the iron shoe, fastened with nails, came into vogue, 
much about the same time that the tree saddle, with stirrups, was in¬ 
vented. How such obvious improvements in the equestrian art should 
not have been earlier adopted, is one uf those curious facts in the history 
of mankind that have never been fully explained. The fact is certain 
that the classic languages of antiquity contain no words for horse shoes, 
saddles, or stirrups, in their modern sense. Now, the saddle throughout 
the middle ages—at least, when used for military purposes—was formed 
of steel or iron, and was consequently the work of the smith. To the 
smith also belonged the forging of the iron shoe and the driving of the 
nails. The last operation, as we all know, required no small skill, and 
the smith often caused injuries to the hoof, which he had to do his best 
to cure. About the same time, also, the use of the actual cautery 
became common, and from these combined causes it is easy to see how 
the farrier came to be regarded as an authority in veterinary medicine. 
Nor were the ancient farriers the rude blacksmiths into which they 
ultimately degenerated. They were the forgers of armour, both defensive 
and offensive, at a time when that art was much more highly cultivated 
than it has ever been since the invention of gunpowder. They were 
men often of great attainments in metallurgy and chemistry. As time 
wore on, a great change took place in the military art. The armies of 
Greece and Rome had been mainly composed of a highly-disciplined 
infantry. With the institution of chivalry, this (about the ninth 
century) was entirely changed. The strength of the mediseval armies 
