VETERINARY MEDICINE.
Tilts useful branch of general knowledge, in for mer years, and even now by the vulgar, called Far riery, has of late received the more appropriate and deserving 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 veterinary science can be practised with its fullest advantages.
The Veterinary according to the present ac ceptation of the phrase, comprehends a knowledge of the external form, as well as the internal struc ture and economy of our domestic quadrupeds; their appropriate management; 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 Latin adjective Veterinarius; which by some of the ancient writers, in particular by Columella, was used substantively to denote a farrier, or one who lets horses to hire ; its radicle being the verb veho, to carry; whence Veterinarius came to signify any thing 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 veterinary once more came to be deemed worthy the attention of men of respectability and education. To the French, in an especial degree, are we indebted for this me ritorious rescue of our art from the trammels of ignorance and superstition. 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 our present veterinary college at St. Pancras (close to London) was opened for the reception of pupils and patients, under the direction of Sainbel, its first professor, a French man who had come over from France for the spe cific purpose of introducing the study of the art among us; and who succeeded, under the auspices of the Odiham Agricultural Society, in founding a college and creating himself professor. He did not live, however, for more than two years in the en joyment of the dignities and emoluments which his praise-worthy exertions had obtained for him: he died regretted by those who personally and profes sionally knew him, leaving an appointment vacant, which was shortly afterwards divided between a gentleman who at that day stood high among horse people, Mr. Moorcroft, and a young aspirant, whose
qualifications were purely medical, Mr. Coleman. Not long afterwards, the former of these gentlemen resigned his share of office, and obtained subse quently an appointment in India, as superintendant of the company's studs, leaving Mr. Coleman alone in possession of the professorship, which he con tinues to hold to this day. Such is a circumscribed outline of the history of the veterinary art.
An enlightened age has discovered that the study of the medical department of this art can be ration ally 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 malpractice among them. When we come to consider what a complicated machine an animal body altogether is, and how exceedingly its intricacy and importance must be enhanced by the circumstance 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 con struction or its action, when it is in a sound and healthy state: but the truth is, that it is this very ignorance which carries them through the dark some wilderness into which want of common reflec tion alone on the part of their employers could have induced them to enter. As might have been with every just reason anticipated, then, anatomy and physiology have done much for veterinary medical and surgical practice: we have advanced greatly through the instrumentality of this description of knowledge; at the same time, however, we have likewise discovered that there is a great deal yet to be learned, and we are most happy to see that many clever well-informed veterinarians declare themselves fully sensible of this by the ready and effective manner in which they are applying their shoulders to the wheel. Impressed with these con siderations, we could not regard the account we are hereafter to give of the disorders of horses but as imperfect, unless we prefaced it with an outline of the anatomy and physiology of the animal: this, therefore, shall engage us in the first instance.