former have degenerated in confequence of the curfe intailed upon mankind by original fin; which faid curfe, with all its lamentable results, neceffarily extended to the brute creation. What a faultlefs race of courfers might have scoured along our plains, but for the theft of that fatal nonpareil; and what a ferious business it was in the olden time to rob an orchard.

The authors, who next present themselves in our veterinary catalogue, are De Grey and Snape; of the former, whofe book I have not looked into these many years, all I recollect is that he was an advocate for breeding Horses upon the plan of having the foals dropped in the winter feafon, to which fingular opinion, I believe, he made few converts; and that he, in a certain disease, the name of which I have forgot, prescribes prepared toads as an infallible remedy. He directs the old cruel method of baking the toads, which I particularly advert to, that I may have an opportunity of commending the humanity of the editor of a late edition of Quincy's Dispensary, who recommends previously to fmother the animals with fulphur.

Snape was farrier to King Charles II. and the little he has left, proves him to have been a writer of a very different character from the lastmentioned. He published the Anatomy of the Horse, availing himself of the labours of Ruini,

and

and other Italian anatomifts, in aid of his own practical obfervations. This fyftem has fince been the constant guide of all our veterinary writers; and is, doubtlefs, a very fufficient one for any person who has been bred to the profeffion of surgery, and defires to obtain a knowledge of hyppiatric anatomy. Snape intended, it seems, to have written a regular treatise on the diseases of Horses, but from whatever caufe of disappointment, he published only fome short notes, on a few of them. This is to be regretted, if we may judge from his obfervations upon the glanders, and the foundered foot, which are in the highest degree judicious; and prove him to have been far fuperior in rational knowledge to his cotemporary veterinarians. The late Edward Snape, farrier to George III. has frequently affured me, that he was lineally defcended from the famous farrier of that name.

That loyal and illuftrious cavalier, the noble Duke of Newcastle, the one half (but whether the better, or not, let the ponderous volumes of each decide) of "that stately pair," in the fame reign, favoured the world with a folio upon the fubject of Horfes. There is but little in his Grace's work at all applicable to the prefent times, or indeed at all interesting; unless it be his descriptions of the Horses of different countries, in which it may be prefumed the Duke

C 4

Duke (being a great amateur) had more experience than could be attainable by any private perfon.

From that period, to the reign of George I. we had no equeftrian, or veterinary writer, of any note, until Sir William Hope published his Complete Horfeman. This work confifts of a tranflation of the French writer Solleyfell, to which is fubjoined an original treatise by Sir William, where fome practical remarks are to be found worthy of remembrance.

It is not to be contemplated, without aftonifhment, that, previous to the last-mentioned period, no man of the medical profeffion in England, had thought it worth his while to bestow a part of his attention upon the nature and difeafes of Horses, notwithstanding the immenfe and growing confequence of the animal to the higher ranks of fociety in particular; and that the breed had, for near two centuries, been an object of greater concern in this, than in any other country. Indeed the breeding and management of Horses had proceeded in the regular and natural train of improvement, and had kept equal pace with other arts; but veterinary medicine had undergone little or no change, fince the days of Blundevill and Markham, either in theory or practice. The wretched, ill-fated animal, after being maimed and crippled in the fervice of

his unrelenting mafter, was configned to additional and useless torture under the hands of an ignorant and brutal farrier, who mangled his devoted limbs with fenfeless and inapplicable operations, or drenched his body with nauseous and unmeaning flops; of the merits of which, the judgment of the doctor and his patient were nearly upon a level. The broth of fodden whelps, dogs t--d and wine, chickens guts, human ordure fresh from the alembic, had not yet ceafed to be numbered among the choiceft veterinary fpecifics!

At length arofe William Gibson, destined to the honor of being the firft of his countrymen (and I believe of any country in Europe, during the prefent century) who applied the fcience of medicine to the brute creation, and who promulged a regular system of veterinary practice, founded on the permanent basis of true medical principles.

Gibson was bred a furgeon, and lived in Duke-ftreet, Grofvenor-fquare, as lately as the year 1750, where he had practifed veterinary medicine for many years. He had ferved (if I am rightly informed) as furgeon to Colonel Churchill's regiment of horfe, in Queen Anne's wars, when, it is to be prefumed, he first obtained a knowledge of the difeafes of horses; and as his veterinary practice continued afterwards for upwards of forty years, and was at.

fome

periods very extenfive, his experience must have been greater, and more to be depended upon, than that of any other man either before or fince his time. His works first came abroad between the years 1720 and 1730, and confifted of his Farrier's Guide, in one volume; his treatise on dieting Horses, and his Farrier's Difpensary. This last, I have never yet had an opportunity of seeing. An edition of his chief work, The Farrier's Guide, he published in the year 1750, revifed by him for the laft time, and enlarged to two volumes. His books are written in a plain, unaffected, perspicuous style, and evince him to have been a man of deep reflection, of candour, and of a most respectable fhare of medical knowledge. His mind being fo thoroughly replenished with his fubject, and affecting utility in preference to the graces of compofition, he is frequently too diffuse, fometimes tediously prolix; but fuch of his readers as aim at solid information, rather than trifling amufement, will on that head find little to regret. He very freely acknowledged the little he owed to preceding writers, which chiefly confifted in the names and catalogue of diseases. No author abounds fo much in cautions against the ignorant and temerarious practice of farriers and grooms, more particu larly in the article of violent purges; and his works are totally free from the barbarous ab

furdities