The veterinary surgeon; or, Farriery taught on a new and easy plan : being a treatise on all the diseases and accidents to which the horse is liable ... with instructions to the shoeing-smith, farrier, and groom / by John Hinds.

  • Hinds, John, active 1803-1830.
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The veterinary surgeon; or, Farriery taught on a new and easy plan : being a treatise on all the diseases and accidents to which the horse is liable ... with instructions to the shoeing-smith, farrier, and groom / by John Hinds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    11/596 (page 7)
    PREFACE. Vll f. the design of a complete pocket manual for owners* grooms, and aspirants after the knowledge of horse- medicine, of every degree. Like all other practitioners of the, old school, or rather no school, my late father had long amassed to- gether and preserved, in an immense and shapeless vo- lume, entitled his Receipts, all the alleged remedies recommended as eligible and found good in every va- riety of case : I believe he may have tried the efficacy of each* though I am now tolerably well convinced that some must have failed of complete success. Yet was the manuscript preserved like a family treasure; and, destined to fill my pockets at some distant day, its con- tents were secluded from vulgar eyes, though it con- tained nothing but prescriptions. As usual with all si- milar accumulations, the proper remedies were therein stated, without a word as to symptoms or those ano- malous cases that frequently baffle the utmost skill; for the practice of medicine in any of its departments is but an imperfect science, even when we can ascer- tain the precise ailment under which the patient la- bours. This necessary preliminary is not always pos- sible in veterinary practice: we are more frequently baffled than assisted in our inquiries. Notwithstanding all this, my revered parent sustained a high character for successful practice 5 his close observation of the symptoms and attention to the operation of his physic, supplying the want of a regular education, which no one farrier could at that time boast of: indeed, few of them could even copy their own receipts, which they preferred to carry in the memory. At a very early period I endeavoured to repair this apparent defect by