588 VETERINARY MEDICINE. VIBURNUM. | 
Tare crops form an excellent preparation for 
wheat in all the more strong and heavy sorts’ of 
soil, and for both grain and turnips in those of 
the light kinds; but as they have much effect in 
rendering the lands on which they grow more 
light, open, and porous, they may sometimes, in 
the latter case, bring it into too loose a state for 
the successful culture of that crop, as it requires 
a rather close texture of the land.”— Withering’s 
Botany.—Smith’s English Flora—Sinclair’s Hor- 
tus Gramineus—Lawson’s Agriculturist’s Manual. 
—Loudon’s Works.—Dr. Dickson's Practical Agri- 
culture.—Sproule’s Treatise on Agriculture—An- 
nals of Agriculture.—Reports to the Board of Agri- 
culture.—Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.—Jour- 
nal of the Royal Agricultural Society— Museum 
Rusticum.— Young.—Low.—Stephens. 
VETCH (Brrrzr). See Brrrer Vercu. 
VETCH (Horsz-Suor). See Horsr-Suor 
VETCH. 
VETCH (Kipney). See Kipney Vurcu. 
VETCHLING. See Laruyrus. 
VETCH (Mrrx). See Mitx Vercu. 
VETERINARY MEDICINE. This useful 
branch of general knowledge in former years, 
and even now, by the vulgar, called farriery, has 
of late received the more appropriate and de- 
serving title of veterinary art. In a medical 
point of view, it may be regarded as naturally 
allied to the science of human medicine; in other 
respects, however, its objects tend quite another 
way; and it is only by a happy amalgamation of 
acquirements of both descriptions, that veteri- 
nary science can be practised with its fullest 
advantages. The veterinary art, according to 
the present acceptation of the phrase, compre- 
hends a knowledge of the external form, as well 
as the internal structure and economy, of our 
domestic quadrupeds, — their appropriate ma- 
| nagement,—the nature, causes, and treatment of 
their disorders,—and the art of shoeing such of 
them as may be found to require it. The word 
veterinary is an anglicism derived from the La- 
tin adjective veterinarius,—which, by some of the 
ancient writers, in particular by Columella, was 
used substantively, to denote a farrier, horse- 
doctor, or one who lets horses to hire; its radi- 
cal being the verb veho, to carry,—whence vete- 
rinarius came to signify anything connected with, 
| or relating to, beasts of burden. 
Veterinary science shared the common fate of 
literature in general during the interval known 
as the dark ages; and it was not until some 
time after the period of the universal revival of 
letters, and other arts and sciences, that the vete- 
rinary art once more came to be deemed worthy 
the attention of men of respectability and edu- 
cation. ‘To the French in an especial degree are 
we indebted for this meritorious rescue of our 
art from the trammels of ignorance and super- 
stition. Solleysel, Bourgelat, and Lafosse, shone 
first in the hemisphere of revived veterinary 
science, and have left behind them lights.which 
will for years to come serve us as beacons through | | 
many obscure and trackless regions. In 1762, 
the first veterinary school was instituted, the 
one at Lyons; in 1766, that at Alfort was opened. 
A similar institution was founded at Berlin in 
1792; and, in the year following, the London 
veterinary college was opened for the reception 
of pupils and patients, under the direction of 
Sainbel, its first professor, a Frenchman who 
had come over from France for the specific pur- 
pose of introducing the study of the art among 
us, and who succeeded, under the auspices of the 
Odiham Agricultural Society, in founding a col- 
lege and creating himself professor. See the arti- 
cles AGRICULTURALScHooLs and HippopaTHoLoey. 
An enlightened age has discovered that the 
study of the medical department of this art can 
be rationally conducted only upon a knowledge 
of anatomy and physiology. These are the rocks 
which the farriers are continually splitting and 
blundering against ; the neglect of this the cause 
that has led to so much mystery, superstition, 
and mal-practice among them. When we consi- 
der what a complicated machine an animal body 
altogether is, and how exceedingly its intricacy 
and importance must be enhanced by the cir- 
cumstance of its being possessed of vitality, we 
can only feel astonishment we hardly know how 
to express, that such a set of ignorant men as 
farriers and grooms in general are, should have 
the assurance to pretend to be able to set that 
machine aright again every time it is out of 
order, concerning which they possess not one 
particle of knowledge, in regard either to its 
construction or its action, when it is in a sound 
and healthy state. But the truth is, it is this 
very ignorance which carries them through the 
darksome wilderness into which want of com- 
mon reflection alone on the part of their em- 
ployers could have induced them to enter. 
VIBORGIA. A small genus of ornamental, | 
yellow-flowered, Cape-of-Good- Hope, evergreen || 
shrubs, of the genista division of the lesuminous 
order. Two species, the silky and the obcordate, 
have been introduced to British collections; and 
they have a height of between 2 and 4 feet, and 
bloom in July and August, and thrive best in a 
soil of loamy peat. 
VIBRIO. See Har-Cockte. 
VIBURNUM. A genus of ornamental, erect, 
white-flowered shrubs, of the honeysuckle fami- 
ly. ‘Two species grow wild in Britain, about 30 
have been introduced from other countries, and 
a few more are known. Five or six of the spe- 
cies in Britain are tender or half-tender ever- 
greens, four or five are hardy evergreens, and 
the rest are hardy deciduous shrubs. They 
vary in height from 2 to 20 feet; and most 
love a soil of peaty loam, and are propagated 
from layers. Three are described in the articles 
Lavurustinus, GuenpER-Rosr, and Cassine; and 
two or three more of the best known may be 
noticed here. | 
| 
