INTRODUCTOllY LECTURE 
 
 TO 
 
 A COURSE OF LECTURES 
 
 UPON 
 
 COMPARATIVE AXAT031Y, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE DISEASES OF DO^ilESTIC ANIMALS, 
 
 DELIVERED J^'OVEMBER 3, 1813 
 
 BY JA3IES MEASE, M. D. 
 
 SrXRETART TO THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE, MEM- 
 BER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, AND HONORARY 3IEMBER OF 
 THE BATH AND WEST OF ENGLAND SOCIETY. 
 
 i 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PRINTED BY LYDIA R. BAILEY, No. 10, NORTH ALLEY. 
 
 181 i. 
 
AKeaS€- 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 1 
 
 / 
 
 https://archive.org/details/introductorylect01nneas 
 
TO 
 
 «■ 
 
 ROBERTS VAUX, AND REUBEN HAINES, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 GENTLEMEN 
 
 WHO ATTENDED HIS FIRST COURSE OF LECTURES, 
 
 COMP.IEATIVE Jl^ATOMr, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE mSE^SES OF DOMESTIC JimMJlLS, 
 
 THIS INTRODUCTORY LECTURE 
 
 IS DEDICATED, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 PMlad. Jliigust 10 , 1814 , 
 
At a stated meeting of tlie Philadelphia Society for pro- 
 moting Agriculture, July 12tli, 1814, the following resolu- 
 tion was on motion unanimously passed. , 
 
 The society having been long impressed with the import- 
 ance of veterinary knowledge, and having offered a premi- 
 xim for the best essay thereon, are Avitli great satisfaction 
 informed of the merit of a course of lectures, delivered last 
 winter, by Dr. Mease, on “ comparative anatomy and the 
 diseases of domestic animals;” whereupon resolved. 
 
 That Dr. Mease he requested by the president to permit the 
 introductory lecture, on the subject mentioned, to he print- 
 ed in the third volume of the Memoirs of the Society. 
 
 Belmont, July 14, 1814. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Permit me to request a compliance with the xvishes of the 
 Society, expressed in the enclosed resolution, hy your publish- 
 ing your lecture, and thereby contributing to one of the great 
 objects our society have long had in view ; — the encouraging 
 every endeavour to promulgate and promote vetmnary hnoiv- 
 ledge. 
 
 I am, very truly, yours, 
 
 Richard Peters. 
 
 Dr. James Mease. 
 
INTRODUCTOIiY LECTURE 
 
 TO 
 
 A COURSE OF LECTURES 
 
 UPON 
 
 COIMPARATIVE ANA rOMY, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMxULS. 
 
 BY JAMES MEASE, M. D. 
 nELIVERED J\i'OVEMBER o, 1813. 
 
 / 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 A conviction of the great necessity at present of a course 
 of lectures upon Comparative Anatomy, and the Diseases 
 of Domestic Animals, has induced me to undertake to de- 
 liver them. I had indeed contemplated a course on the last 
 subject, several years since, but was prevented from com- 
 mencing it, by circumstances that no longer exist. The dif- 
 fusion of knowledge upon the subject of my intended course, 
 although at all times desirable, from mere motives of huma- 
 nity, as connected with the means of increasing the comfort 
 of a class of animals over which Providence has made us 
 masters, who labour for us, feed, and clothe us ; is particu- 
 larly important, if we reflect upon the value of some of those 
 animals at the present time, when a laudable spirit of im- 
 provement induces agricultural gentlemen to stock their 
 farms at a considerable expense, with foreign breeds, or to 
 take great pains in originating new stock at home, for the 
 purpose of increasing the quantity and quality of flesh, milk, 
 or fleece ; and when the employment of a large body of ea- 
 
 VOL. III. 
 
 c 
 
On Comparalhe Jlnatomy, and the 
 
 valrj is rendered necessary, by tlie war in winch the United 
 States are en.qaged. — But independently of this latter consi- 
 deration, which is of a public nature, and certainly of suffi- 
 cient consequence to claim the notice of government ; if the 
 noble animal, the horse, considered in a domestic view, were 
 alone the object of our attention, the importance and high 
 value set upon him, when his powers for either speed or 
 drauglit, or the beauty of his form have been greatly im- 
 proved, would he an inducement sufficiently great to autho- 
 rise a course of instruction upon his structure, diseases, and 
 the means of preserving his health. 
 
 As it is very probable that a part of my hearers are en- 
 tirely irnacquainted Avith the subject upon Avhich I am to lec- 
 ture, and even with the meaning of the Avords “ Comparative 
 •Inatomy,’’ it is due to the importance of this branch of 
 knoAvledgc to explain them, to shoAv what attention the stu- 
 dy has excited in the old Avorld, to enumerate the names of 
 the distinguished characters Avho have cultivated it, and to 
 lay before you the very great benefits derived from it, in 
 elucidating the structure and functions of the human body, 
 and explaining the doctrines of its physiology : in aiding the 
 Painter, Sculptor, and Engraver, and lastly, to point out its 
 intimate connexion Avith Veterinary Medicine. 
 
 By the term “ Comparative Anatomy” is understood, the 
 investisation of the structure of brute animats : and its ob- 
 jects are to demonstrate the diversity that exists among si- 
 milar organs, and analogous parts, and to compare them with 
 one another, and Avith man. 
 
 It is reasonable to suppose that this study must have at- 
 tracted the attention of mankind in very early times. The 
 slaughter of animals for food, the preparation of the offer- 
 ings on the altar by the priest, and the custom of deducing 
 auguries from the state of the entrails, would naturally lead 
 to some knoAvledgc of the structure and appearances of the 
 parts : Ave knoAV likcAvise, from the book of Exodus, that 
 names Avere even attached to them, and the parts deelar- 
 
Diseases of Domestic tlnhnals. 
 
 S 
 
 ed to be clean, and unclean, are particularly designated. 
 But Greece first distinguished itself among nations, in the 
 study of anatomy, as a science, as it did in the study and 
 practice of the fine arts ; and Horner,^ by the familiar use 
 of several anatomical terms, and the mention of certain parts 
 of the body, and their connexion with each other, shows that 
 some knowledge of the structure of the human frame was 
 then extant. Pythagoras, after an extensive tour to India 
 and Egypt, brought to his native country, the knowledge on 
 all subjects to be ac(|uired at that time, and of anatomy 
 among others, and disseminated it among his countrymen, 
 with great ai’dour. His pupils, Alcmeon and Empedocles, 
 but more especially Democritus of Abdera, extended the 
 fame of their master, and raised themselves to deserved emi- 
 nence among the philosophers of that day. Upon the suppo- 
 sition that all the disorders of the human body proceeded 
 from bile, he endeavoured to discover its origin and course, 
 and by the ardour of his pursuits, and consequent frequent 
 seclusion from the public, laboured under the imputation of 
 insanity, until the sage Hippocrates, who was sent to visit 
 him, discovered his retreat, and while he undeceived his fel- 
 low citizens, with respect to his mental derangement, did 
 ample justice to his industry and merits. 
 
 Aris-totle, however, was the first scientific anatomist : he 
 enjoyed particular advantages under the patronage of his 
 pupil, Alexander the Great, who granted him a very large 
 sum of money, to purchase animals for dissection, and to de- 
 fray the expenses attending his studies. He did honour to 
 the munificence of his royal patron, by his attention to, and 
 improvement of the subject ; his regular anatomical works 
 have been lost, but he has given much comparative anatomy 
 in the first part of his treatise on animals, and he has form- 
 ed an anatomical nomenclature, which is in part still receiv- 
 ed. Without dwelling on the labours of Diodes of Caiy stus, 
 and of Praxagoras of Cos, I shall pass on to inention the 
 
i 
 
 On Compamlive Jhiatomy, find the, 
 
 successors of Aristotle, viz. Erasistratus his grandson, and 
 Ilerophilus, avIio having been protected and employed by the 
 Ptolemies, sustained the character of the school of Alexan- 
 dria so Avell, that, during their lives, and for a long time 
 after, it continued tlie chief place of resort for students, 
 from all nations. 
 
 About the year 160 of the Christian account, Galen, a 
 name familiar to the whole world, settled at Home, and con- 
 tributed very largely to the advaneemcat of medical science 
 generally, and particularly of anatomy, by his talents, in- 
 dustry in experiments and dissections, and by collecting to- 
 gether all that had been previously Avritten on the subject by 
 the Greek teachers.* After his days Ave have no account of 
 any addition having been made to the previous knoAvledge, 
 in either human or comparative anatomy, for a very long 
 time. To this suspension of the labours of science, the de- 
 cay and division of the Roman empire, in the close of the 
 second century, greatly contributed j hut the finishing stroke 
 to all liberal studies or mental improvement, in the Avestern 
 parts of Europe, Avas given by the irruption of the Barbarian 
 tribes of Germany and Scythia, first into Rome, in 410, un- 
 der Alarie, and finally over the Avhole of Italy, Gaul, and 
 Spain, at different times afterAvards, until the year 476, Avhen 
 the Roman empire Avas finally extinguished in the West. 
 
 A long interval of midnight darkness in science of every 
 kind, succeeded in the Avestern parts of Europe. The Sara- 
 cens Avere at length, in their turn, destined to be the rulers of 
 the former seat of learning and of the liberal arts in the East, 
 and for a long time they did little except destroy. The burn- 
 ing of the library of Alexandria Avill forever remain a splen- 
 did monument of their fanatic barbarity.* Their successors 
 Avere fortunately better disposed, and encouraged the arts,** 
 and after the subversion of the A^isigoths in Spain, Arabian 
 learning Avas introduced by them into that country, (anno 
 710,) Avhere it maintained its ground^ and spread through 
 
Diseases of Domestic d^nimals. 
 
 5 
 
 western Europe, until the ajra Avlien the genuine spirit for 
 improvement and for scienee began to appear in the world. 
 A worse enemy to scienee than even the Saracens originally 
 had been, succeeded in the Turks, who from their first de- 
 scent on the great theatre of the M orld, from the mountain- 
 ous regions of Taurus and Imaus, to the present day, have 
 uniformly evinced a settled hostility to improvement and in- 
 novation of any kind. In 1055 they pillaged Bagdad, and 
 the ruin of that seat of splendor and of learning, was com- 
 pleted by the Moguls in 1258. In the progress of their victo- 
 ries, but not until after a long siege, the Turks became mas- 
 ters of Constantinople, (the last remnant of the Roman em- 
 pire,) in the year 1453, and thus became the unwilling instru- 
 ments of the diffusion of learning and the arts throughout Eu- 
 rope : for the philosophers who had made that city their 
 place of residence, after having been driven from Rome, fled 
 to the Italian states for protection, bringing w ith them their 
 own works, and those of the Greek authors in their original 
 dress, and fortunately found the people eager to receive the 
 information they had to communicate ; and, what was of 
 most consequence, the different rulers of the country w ere 
 disposed to afford them all the protection and support they 
 desired. This spirit for the liberal arts had been revived, 
 in part, in consequence of the acquaintance which the cru- 
 saders had made wdth Arabian learning, during their chi- 
 valrous expeditions to the holy land ; and the means of gra- 
 tifying it had been already obtained, by the discovery of the 
 mode of making paper, in the eleventh century, and had been 
 powerfully promoted by that of the precious art of printing, 
 in the year 1445, which facilitated the multiplication of co- 
 pies of books. 
 
 Europe thus enriched and roused made some progress in 
 medical literature, and in anatomy, but it w as slow ; the 
 popular prejudices, nay the abhorrence against touching dead 
 bodies, and much more against their patient examination, 
 long continued in almost all countries except Italy, and the 
 
6 
 
 On Comparative Anatomy ^ and the 
 
 consequence was, that Italy was the country in which human 
 and comparative anatomy was for a long time chiefly taught. 
 
 Upon the general diffusion of the spirit of inquiry in Eu- 
 rope, Avhich continued to take place, the study of human and 
 comparative anatomy kept equal pace for nearly all those 
 eminent men who attended to one branch, were zealous in 
 the prosecution of the other. But the sixteenth century 
 may be considered as the sera whence we must date the re- 
 vival of anatomical knowledge in general ; during which, 
 we find among others that might he mentioned, the names 
 ofVcsalius, Fallopius, Eustachius, and Fahrieius,® promi- 
 nent as teachers. The science was prosecuted with ad- 
 ditional spirit in the succeeding century, after the doctrine 
 of the circulation of the blood had been taught by Harvey 
 in London ; and more especially after his publication of the 
 great discovery in 1628, when a new field w'as opened, from 
 which both branches of our subject derived important bene- 
 fits, by the new stimulus to experiment which it excited, and 
 by enabling medical men to illustrate many points, before 
 inexplicable, relative to the animal economy. In the course 
 of the 17th, and the early part of the 18th century, the 
 world was favoured with the labours of Grew,® Willis,^ Ty- 
 son,® Collins,® Lower,“ Keill, and others in England ; Pey- 
 eiV^ in Switzerland ,• He Graaf,i^ Leew^enhoek,’® Blazius,!"* 
 Swammerdam,'® Ruyscli,'® Steno, and others in Germany 
 and the Netherlands ; Eudbeck'^ in Sweden ; and Bartho- 
 iine'® in Denmark ; Bellini, Valisneri, Malphigi,'® and Redi, 
 in Italy ; Casscrius,^® Perrault, G. J. Duvcrney,^' and others, 
 in France, The collection of facts made by the foregoing 
 anatomists w^as great, no complete system however was 
 farmed, until about the middle and latter end of the last 
 century, when the observations of preceding authors were 
 arranged, and the science was prosecuted Avith ncAv ardour. 
 We were then favoured with the discoveries of D’Auhen- 
 ton,22 the friend and coadjutor of the Count de Buftbn, in 
 his great Avork on natural history, and Vie D’Azyiy® in 
 
Liseases of Domestic dnimals. 
 
 7 
 
 France 5 Camper^^ and Sandifort, in Holland; Pallas, in 
 Russia; the illustrious Haller, professor at Gottingen ; Scar- 
 pa and Camparetti, in Italy. In England, we are indebted 
 to William and John Hunter, Hewson, Home, M’Cartney, 
 A. Cooper, Townson, Haigbton, Cruiksliank, and others, 
 and in Scotland, to the two Miinros (1st and 2nd,) for the 
 elucidation of the organs of various animals, and for very 
 considerable additions to our stock of knowledge on the sub- 
 ject. Lastly, Cuvier,^® of Paris, and Blumenbachj^e of Got- 
 tingen, may justly be considered as the most eminent contri- 
 butors to comparative anatomy, in modern times. 
 
 It would be tedious to detail the particular animals and 
 subjects, to the investigation and dissection of Avhich, these 
 illustrious men devoted their attention ; it may be therefore 
 only necessary to say, that scarcely any part of the animal 
 creation, from the colossal elephant to the crawling cater- 
 pillar, escaped their attention; and that from all of their la- 
 bours, instruction of the most useful kind, and from some of 
 them, of the most pleasing nature, has been derived. 
 
 I shall now proceed to enumerate the advantages that have 
 resulted to mankind from the prosecution of comparative 
 anatomy. 
 
 Every well read medical man, Avho, not content with knoAV- 
 ing merely the present state of the science of medicine and 
 the art of surgery, has investigated the progress of their 
 improvement, must be acquainted Avith the essential services 
 Avhieh have been rendered to both professions by comparative 
 anatomy ; yet as some of my hearers are not expected to be 
 informed on this subject, it is due to the study, and may not 
 prove uninteresting to them, to give a short account of the 
 benefits Avhich have resulted from it. 
 
 1. The study of comparative anatomy opens to the mind 
 a source of the highest satisfaction and interest, and tends 
 most poAverfully to give exalted ideas of the Avisdom of the 
 Author of all existence. In the Avords of the eloquent Her- 
 der, it « gives man a clew to liimself, which conducts him 
 
8 
 
 On Comparaiive Jlnalomy, and the 
 
 through the great labyrinth of living creation ; and if we 
 can say of any method, that through it our understanding 
 ventures to scrutinize the profound and comprehensive mind 
 of God, it must be this.”^^ From a very slight knowledge 
 of the structure of the human frame, the royal psalmist was 
 enabled to exclaim, “ man is fearfully and wonderfully 
 made,” and had he been acquainted with the structure of 
 the inferior order of animals, he would have found in them 
 additional sources of wonder and of praise, from contempla- 
 ting the infinite variety of modes in which the same func- 
 tions are performed in diflerent animals, and in tracing the 
 contrivances and structure of the organs and general me- 
 chanism of their frames, which are so nicely adapted to their 
 diflerent economies and necessities, whether their residence 
 he in air, in water, or on land. 
 
 2. In the early stages of society, this study materially 
 promoted the knowledge of the structure of the human body : 
 for owing to the invincible prejudices against human dis- 
 sections, and the prevalence of the opinion that the handling 
 of a dead body communicated a degree of moral pollution to 
 the living, it was extremely difficult to procure human bo- 
 dies for the purpose of examination, and injurious to the re- 
 putation of medical men to dissect them even if procured. 
 The ancient physicians therefore were under the necessity 
 of drawing their inferences with respect to the anatomy of 
 the human body, and the uses of its various organs, from 
 brute animals ; and apes, probably from their external form 
 more nearly than any other animal, resembling that of man, 
 were the chief subjects of investigation; and we know from 
 the disagreement of Galen's account of the structure of va- 
 rious parts of the body, with what has been ascertained by 
 anatomists in later times, and from recent dissections of those 
 animals, that it was from them his descriptions were chiefly 
 
 taken.28 
 
 3. Upon various questions of physiology, which from their 
 nature could not be ascertained in the human subject, this 
 
Diseases of Domestk Anbntils. 
 
 9 
 
 study has rendered the most essential services. The deer, 
 in the park of king Charles the first, with which he gene- 
 rously furnished Dr. Harvey, served to make some progress 
 in the discovery of the process of the evolution of the foetus^ 
 a subject that has since been greatly elucidated byDe Graaf, 
 Spalanzani, Dm Haighton,^® and Mr. Cruikshank.^ By 
 experiments on other animals. Dr. Harvey also ascertained, 
 beyond contradiction, the circulation of the blood through 
 the body, and its rotatory motion by the heart arteries and 
 veins, so as to make many complete circuits round the body 
 in twenty hours.^^ 
 
 4. It is to comparative anatomy we owe the discovery of 
 the lymphatic system, and the certainty of the use it was in- 
 tende(l to perform in the human body. The otfiee of this ad- 
 mirable and curious system of vessels, is to absorb and con- 
 vey back to the blood, all the decayed parts of the human 
 body, (even bone itself,) and all those thin, pellucid fluids, 
 that wander from the course of the circulation, that they 
 may undergo new preparations, or be thrown entirely out of 
 tjie body : and in the intestines, they perform the important 
 office of conveying the nutritious and watery part of the 
 food into the system. Hence they arise from every organ 
 of the body. An opinion may be formed of the active pow- 
 er possessed by those apparently tender, and minute vessels, 
 from considering the rapidity with which they transmit their 
 contents : this has been satisfactorily "“ascertained by Mr. 
 Cruikshank, to be at the rate of twenty feet in length, in one 
 minute. His experiments were made upon dogs, and the 
 well known facts of a peculiar smell in the urine, being 
 perceived in less than one hour after eating asparagus and 
 certain species of cabbage ; and the increase of urine in the 
 same space of time, after drinking certain mineral waters, 
 lead us to suppose that the activity of the laeteals in man, 
 is equally great.^^ 
 
 5. It is to this study we owe the discoveries of the cele- 
 brated Italian professor Spalanzani, Dr. Stevens, John Hun- 
 
 von. III. d 
 
10 
 
 On Comparative Analomij, and the 
 
 ter, and others, on the digestion of food in the hnman sto- 
 niaeh, and in many other animals, about Avhieh process vari- 
 ous erroneous theories had been previously entertained. The 
 consideration of this process, as conducted in animals, with 
 an examination of the admirable organs for the purpose, will 
 form a very interesting part of our course.^^ 
 
 6. “ Comparative anatomy becomes necessary in ascertain- 
 ing the action of organs. All the functions have ceased long 
 before the human body can be opened, and it is only in the 
 inferior animals that we can presume to make experiments 
 examining the movements of the different organs before the 
 principle of life has escaped.” It is chiefly in this field of in- 
 quiry, that Ave have obtained the correct knoAvledge Avhich 
 Ave noAV possess, of many of the animal functions.^^ Nor can 
 the supposition be admitted, that this study savours of cru- 
 elty : every humane mind is shocked at the idea of wantonly 
 giving pain to any animal ; but Avhen such pain is requisite 
 to illustrate the animal physiology, the sacrifice is indispen- 
 sable and justifiable. Without it, Ave might, in all probabi- 
 lity, have been ignorant at this day of the sublime discovery 
 of the circulation of the blood, and deprived of the impor- 
 tant henefits resulting from it to mankind. 
 
 7. By comparing the internal organization of different 
 animals, Ave are enabled to distinguish those parts which are 
 common in the structure of every animal body, and essen- 
 tially necessary for the performance of the vital functions j 
 from such as are peculiar to certain animals, and exclusive- 
 ly subservient to their necessities, economy, or enjoyment. 
 Thus Avhen Ave find particular organs imperfectly developed 
 in certain animals, or extraeted^^ in some, and naturally Avant- 
 ing in a third, without any essential injury to life, Ave are 
 then enabled to judge of the rank Avhicli these organs hold 
 even in the human species : and by the circumstance of life 
 being supported, and the functions of the body going on, 
 after a cessation in the performance of certain functions, 
 Ave are not only taught the propriety of attempting the sav- 
 
Diseases of Domestic Animats. 
 
 11 
 
 ing of life, under cireimistanees whieli Avitliout such knoAv- 
 ledge Avould have been deemed impossible ; but we are indu- 
 ced to admire the Avonderful kindness of Providence, in fur- 
 nishing the system Avith resources, Avhich enables it to sur- 
 vive after such serious privations, and outrages to the ani- 
 mal economy. We had long knoAvn that in tlie operation 
 for aneurism, Avhere a Avounded artery is taken up, and com- 
 pletely divided at the elboAV, or in the thigh, the limb heloAV 
 the part is supplied Avith blood by the inosculating branches 
 given off from the larger artery, above the point of obstruc- 
 tion j hut Mr. Astley Cooper, of London, has shoAvn us, 
 that even the carotid, femoral, and brachial arteries of the 
 dog, in Avhich the stoppage of circulation might naturally he 
 supposed would he folIoAved by the death of the animal, may 
 he tied Avith impunity ; nay, that the aorta of the same ani- 
 mal may he tied and divided Avithout injury to the animal 
 and hence Ave are taught the propriety of attempting the 
 saving of a human life, by ligature, in ease of a Avound in 
 the large arteries of the body, instead of amputating the 
 limb. To the military surgeon, Avho is called upon suddenly to 
 exert his skill, in eases of dreadful Avounds, the inferences to 
 he draAvn from Mr. Cooper’s experiments are invaluable.®" 
 
 8. It Avas by the study of comparative anatomy that avc 
 have ascertained the cause why orans, apes and monkeys 
 cannot speak. J. J. Rousseau, Avith the strangest inconsist- 
 ency, Avhile he laboured to perfect his system, by Avhieh hu- 
 man reason and the human poAvers Avere to attain the high- 
 est possible exaltation, absurdly Avished to degrade man by 
 assimilating his nature to that of brutes, and asserting that 
 those animals had originally been endoAved Avith the divine 
 faculty of speech, but had lost it from disuse. Although 
 the assertion or opinion Avas contradicted, by the negative 
 fact, that no savage nation had been discovered without an 
 artificial language, while herds of orans had been found, 
 without any ; yet no public refutation had ever been made, 
 of the absurdity of the opinion, until after the year 1 779, when 
 
12 
 
 On Compavatire vlnatomy, and ilic 
 
 the excellent professor Camper of Holland, by dissecting 
 the organs of voice in orans, apes and monkeys, demonstra- 
 ted from their situation and structure, that no modulation 
 of the voice, resembling human speech, can be produced in 
 those creatures, because the air passing through the inma 
 Glottulis, (or top of the Avindpipe,) is lost in two ventricles, 
 or hollow bags in the neck, causing it to sAvell, and out of 
 which the air is forced back, without any voice or melody, 
 into the throat and mouth, tlu'ough a slit or hole at the root 
 of the epiglottis.^^ 
 
 9. It is essential to the study of natural history : for ana- 
 tomical structure is the only true basis of a natural classifi- 
 cation of the animal kingdom. It was owing to his not be- 
 ing conversant Avith comparative anatomy, that the zoologi- 
 cal arrangement of the celebrated Linnseus is so deficient, 
 and to an opposite reason may be ascribed the admirable 
 and comprehensive classification of the French naturalists. 
 
 10. An attention to this study has enabled us to explain 
 the facts related by some travellers, the extraordinary na- 
 ture of which had occasioned an unbelief in them, and the 
 imputation of a disregard to truth. — I allude to the narra- 
 tives of the surprising poAver of the camel to take in at 
 one time a sufficient quantity of water to last four or five 
 days, and thereby to become capable of inhabiting the parch- 
 ing deserts of Arabia ; and of the practice of the people 
 of a caravan, of opening those animals when they die, in 
 order to obtain the water from their stomachs. — The ex- 
 amination of the stomaeh of this useful animal, shoAvs hoAV 
 it is enabled to retain the water, and that it is pure enough 
 to be drank Avhen taken from his body, by men Avhose thirst 
 is great.^® 
 
 11. But Avhile comparative anatomy enables us to do jus- 
 tice to travellers, it also furnishes us with the means of 
 putting to the test the truth of various stories of the vulgar, 
 some Oi which have been unaccountably admitted by men 
 of sciettce.'‘“ Such, among others that might be mentioned. 
 
Biseases of Boviestie Animals. 
 
 lii 
 
 is that of the siihniersion of swallows in rivers, creeks, or 
 ponds, during the winter, which has long been implicitly 
 believed.-’i 
 
 12. A knowledge of the principles of comparative anato- 
 my are as essential to the landscape painter, sculptor and 
 engraver, as the knowledge of the human anatomy is to the 
 painter of mankind. An artist may indeed depict upon 
 canvass an animal, which without an inscription under it, 
 may he known to be of the species intended to be represented ; 
 but unless he is acquainted with the relative and natural 
 proportions and forms, which modern improvements have 
 shown are connected with not only beauty of person but pro- 
 fit, he will not reach that perfection in his portraits or deli- 
 neations, nor produce that effect by his labours, which is at 
 all times desirable. ItAvas this knoAAdedge that has render- 
 ed the engraved figures of the horse, by Stubbs, so much and 
 so justly admired, although done so many years since, (1766, 
 London ;) and Avhich contributed greatly to the reputation of 
 the painter Adrian Vandervelde,42 and a fcAv others ; and 
 although a minute knowledge of the anatomy of all animals 
 is not expected from an artist, yet an acquaintance with 
 the structure and mechanism, peculiar to each, is essen- 
 tially necessary to enable him to delineate the muscles, and 
 their action in various positions of the body, and to prevent 
 the commission of those gross absurdities we sometimes see 
 in statues and paintings, such as a Avalking horse represented 
 Avith two diametric opposite feet in an elevated position.'*^ 
 
 13. Comparative anatomy is as essential to the successful 
 practice of veterinai'y medicine, as a knoAvledge of the struc- 
 ture of the human body is to the cure of the diseases and 
 accidents incident to mankind. It is OAving to a Avant of 
 this knoAvledge of their structure, that our useful domestic 
 animals are so mismanaged by farriers, and pretenders to 
 animal medicine ; and that diseases, trivial in their nature, 
 or that slight surgical cases often end in death, or lameness, 
 
On Cominiralive Jinatomy, and the 
 
 li 
 
 whicli might have been easily prevented by a scientific treat- 
 ment. 
 
 Tlie aid which comparative anatomy is capable of afford- 
 ing to veterinary medicine, must be evident to every one 
 who reflects a moment upon the subject. 
 
 “"The veterinary art is a practical application of scientific 
 principles, to the preservation of the health of domestic ani- 
 mals, and to the cure of their diseases, in the same manner 
 as the art of medicine applies to the health and preservation 
 of man : and the science on which this art is grounded, and 
 which it requires for its perfect exercise, comprises the na- 
 tural history, anatomy, physiology, and pathology of those 
 animals, together with such portions of the vegetable and 
 mineral kingdoms as are connected with them, either in the 
 way of aliment or remedy. 
 
 “ To practice this art with certainty, it is necessary to make 
 a special and accurate investigation of the economy of the 
 animal itself, and to observe minutely the different effects 
 that the different subjects of the materia medica might have 
 upon it, and to repeat tlipse inquiries with the same exact- 
 ness, for every animal that is the subject of the art ; and 
 moreover, to superadd such knowledge of the human anato- 
 my, as may be of use in the way of comparison.”^^ A plan 
 of study like this, requires a leisure and education, far be- 
 yond the capacities and circumstances of those to w hom the 
 care of our animals has been hitherto abandoned, and yet 
 such is the importance of the art, that a course of study as 
 long and as circumstantial as that just detailed, is indispen- 
 sable for those who w ould fully, fairly, and honourably en- 
 gage in the exercise of it ; nay, from the inability of the 
 sick animal to describe his feelings, and to point out the seat 
 of his pain, his pathology must necessarily he uncertain, and 
 consequently we might suppose, that a greater degree of 
 judgment and penetration are requisite for the physician of 
 animals than of mankind. What then must be the feelings 
 
Diseases of Domestic vlnimals. 
 
 15 
 
 of any humane mind, to have a favourite horse, which may 
 have greatly contributed to our comfort, health or pleasure, 
 committed to the care of the most ignorant smith or farriei*, 
 whose stock of knowledge may consist in knowing how to 
 ruin the poor animal’s foot, by bad shoeing, or in giving him 
 when sick, the same drench from a horn, whether the dis- 
 ease be pleurisy or colic ? This regret will necessarily con- 
 tinue so long as veterinary medicine is not studied scientifi- 
 cally, or until medical gentlemen cease to think it beneath 
 their notice ; and I may add, until the owners of fine horses 
 will by pecuniary rewards, encourage men of respectability 
 and knowledge to engage in its practice. Further, it is a 
 truth, that nature, amidst the infinite variety in structure, 
 seems to have fashioned all the living creatures on our earth 
 after one grand model of organization : this is more especi- 
 ally the case with those composing the extensive class mam- 
 malia, of which man is the head. 
 
 The bones, the muscles, the vessels, the nerves, the or- 
 gans that prepare and secrete the various fluids of the body, 
 and those of the difierent senses, as of seeing, hearing, smell- 
 ing and tasting, seem to be substantially the same, except 
 as regards some difference in form, size and position, arising 
 from the peculiar wants of each animal. 
 
 The diseases of mankind and of some animals, particular- 
 ly the horse, are moreover very similar. Independently of 
 the various accidents requiring the aid of surgery, such as 
 wounds and fractures of bones ; the horse is also subject to 
 fever, pleurisy, dropsy in the brain, severe catarrh, violent 
 colics, dysury or difficulty in staling, diabetes or a preterna- 
 tural flow of urine, various kinds of worms, epilepsy, asthma, 
 locked jaw, and other complaints ; with the locked jaw, ma 
 ny horses are carried off in this city every year. 
 
 The Goitre or swelled neck, which is so prevalent a com- 
 plaint among the inhabitants of Switzerland, of Thibet, and 
 other countries of the old world, and also in the new fron- 
 tier settlements of the United States, attacks sheep and calvev 
 
16 
 
 On Comparative Anatomy, and the 
 
 in tliis country, and dogs in Switzerland according to Mr. 
 Coxe. From my inquiries into this complaint, as it ex- 
 ists in the United States, I have ascertained that it invaria- 
 bly disappears when the land is well cultivated, and di*aincd. 
 But the fact is far otherwise in the other quarters of the 
 globe ; there, it seems to he indissolubly connected with the 
 climate and soil. 
 
 Calves are also subject to the croup or hives,''^ and dogs 
 and hogs to inveterate cutaneous eruptions. 
 
 Dr. Sims, president of the Medical Society of London, 
 says he knows the mange in dogs and cats will give the itch, 
 and that of two sorts, the one being evidently larger than 
 the other and a friend of mine was alfeeted with a large 
 pustule, similar to the chicken pock, from touching his face 
 after handling an imported merino sheep, at the time the 
 animal was aftected with the disease called by the French, 
 claveaii, or sheep-pock. Poultry too have their peculiar 
 diseases, as the gaps in fowls,-*? and dropsy in the craws of 
 turkeys. 
 
 If we consider the present state of animal medicine in this 
 country, under its appellation of farriery, we see it in as de- 
 plorable a situation, as was the aj-t of medicine, during the 
 barbarous ages, when the gross ignorance of its professors 
 brought disgrace upon the art itself, and when many disea- 
 ses, which now yield readily to judicious treatment, raged 
 without controul ; yet that the veterinary art, like human 
 medicine, in tlie hands of a judicious person, is raised to re- 
 spect, we may see by the example of ancient times, and by 
 the present example of several nations of Europe. If we 
 look into ancient histoi-y, we find that before the downfall 
 of the iloman empire, which crushed in its ruins all arts and 
 sciences, veterinary medicine was esteemed among the most 
 important objects, and worthy the consideration of an en- 
 quiring mind. Connected on the one hand with human me- 
 dicine, and on the other with agriculture, it both enlarged 
 tlie stock of human knoAvledge, and improved an important 
 
Diseases of Domesfic Animals. 
 
 17 
 
 brancli of rural eeononly.^^ The renerahle Hippocrates 
 Avrotc a treatise upon the subject.— In Carthage, Mago com- 
 posed an elaborate work on rural and veterinary medicine. 
 — Columella, who lived about the fiftieth year of the Chris- 
 tian account, devoted four hooks, out of twelve on husbandry 
 in general, to veterinary medicine. Catoj Tai’ro, Pliny, and 
 Vegetius, (A. C. 300,) also laboured to serve veterinary me- 
 dicine. — Indeed I find from my researches on this subject, 
 that the course of human and animal medicine proceeded to- 
 gether, until they both fell at the irruption of ignorance and 
 barbarity into Europe, in the third and fourth centuries 
 but at the revival of knowledge, and of a spirit of inquiry, 
 while the intrinsic value of the life of man animated those 
 labours which have advanced human medicine to its present 
 state of perfection, it was the undeserved lot of veterinary 
 medicine to he excluded from the asylum of the sciences, 
 and to he left to the undisturbed possession of the most illi- 
 terate and obstinate of men. — To withdraw it from its obscu- 
 rity, and to restore it to that rank among the arts and scien- 
 ces which it was its right to hold, was a merit reserved to 
 France. So long back as the beginning of the sixteenth 
 centnry, Ruellius compiled by order of Francis the first, a 
 large assemblage of veterinary matter, whicli he translated 
 into Latin, and published in folio, in the most splendid style, 
 at the expense of his king. Afterwards, the government of 
 the same country, under Lewis the fourteenth, formed the 
 first establishment for studying the diseases of animals ; and 
 in the year 1762, a regular school was founded at Lyons, in 
 France, for the study and improvement of veterinary sci- 
 ence, with every convenience for that purpose •, apartments 
 for dissections, with a botanic garden, and professors in clie- 
 mistry and materia medica, and others to teach the anato- 
 mical structure of animals in general ; w ith the nature and 
 cure of the diseases incidental to them, that thereby tlie 
 whole nation might be provided Avith skilful farriers.^® This 
 shortly after gave rise to a similar one near Paris, and 
 VOI. IIT. c 
 
On Comparalivc Analomy, and the 
 
 lA 
 
 at present veterinary schools are as regularly organized 
 throughout France, as schools for arts and sciences. The ce- 
 lebrated D’Aubenton, the friend of the count de Buffon, pre- 
 sided over the school at Charenton, and afterwards at Eam- 
 houillct, on the removal of the national farm to that place. 
 All these establishments being directed by men of zeal and 
 science, and set on foot and supported by government, gave 
 a degree of respectability unknoAvn before to the study, and 
 so completely removed all former prejudices against it, that 
 it soon afterwards became very generally cultivated by peo- 
 ple of education throughout the kingdom. 
 
 The example set by France was soon followed in Vienna 
 by Maria Theresa, and her successor Joseph the second ; by 
 Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia ,* and last of all England. — 
 The veterinary college was established in London in the 
 year 1790 ; and 1500 pounds sterling are annually granted hy 
 government for its support. No person is permitted to offer 
 as a candidate for the post of veterinary surgeon in the ar- 
 my, without attending a stated time, the lectures and demon- 
 strations of the professor, and undergoing an examination, 
 conducted by some of the most eminent medical and surgi- 
 cal characters in London, who from patriotic motives take 
 on themselves that trouble. The professor of the college is 
 Edward Coleman, a regular bred surgeon. The Dublin so- 
 ciety, which is liberally endoAved by the government of that 
 country, and Avhich has done so much for the improvement 
 of Ireland, has also established a veterinary professorshij), 
 and a regular bred physician (Dr. Peel) gives lecture-s on 
 the subject. 
 
 It remains for this country, in which the spirit for im- 
 provement in stock of every kind is so visibly inci’easing, 
 and tlie value of which is enhanced by the high price and 
 the growing demand for some of them j to follow those ex- 
 amples and by advancing the art to a height as yet unat- 
 tained, to make it amends for the neglect Ave have hitherto 
 slioAvn it. Indeed I am persuaded that in a short time the 
 
Diseases of Domestic Animals. 
 
 19 
 
 public attention will be called to the subject, and that men 
 of education will think it no derogation from their medical 
 character, to become acquainted with the diseases of cattle, 
 or to lend their aid in the removal of them when required j 
 and thus rescue our useful animals from the unqualified 
 hands to whose care they must otherwise, as at present, from 
 necessity be committed. 
 
 A distinction must be made between veterinary medicine 
 and farriery. The first is founded upon science, whereas 
 farriery disclaiming any connexion with science, proves itself 
 a mere practice, habit or routine, and as it rests on nothing 
 regular or solid, so it must ever be variable. The course of 
 veterinary medicine and farriery are indeed the same, but 
 with this difference, that the former condescends to admit a 
 guide, while the latter prefers to ramble at risk and hazard. 
 Were their objects any way different, farriery would have a 
 plea for rejecting the assistance of veterinary science, found- 
 ed on the peculiarity of its own object. But they are strict- 
 ly the same, so that the only alternative might be in the su- 
 perior excellence of the means by which it endeavours to ac- 
 quire it. But we know that farriery pretends to ho such 
 means, that its practice is a collection of prescriptions and 
 operations, without rule or precision, communicable to any 
 body, in the form of a pamphlet. With this view" of the 
 subject, how is it possible that we can sacrifice so much of 
 our common prudence, as to give to it any portion of that 
 -confidence w hich medicine itself is only capable of exacting 
 from us, in proportion as it exhibits a quite opposite cha- 
 racter.™ 
 
 Such being the facts Avith respect to the knowdedge re- 
 quired for the veterinary practitioner, and such the distinc- 
 tion betAveen veterinary science and farriery, let us inquire 
 into the inducements and necessity that exist for acquiring 
 the knoAvledge of this branch of the medical profession. 
 
 1. The importance of the subject. 
 
 The argument derived from this source rests on the value 
 
20 
 
 On Comparative Jinalomy, and the 
 
 of cattle, as they are a source of public and private opulence; 
 the means of our subsistence, and the instruments of our 
 convenience and pleasure. This value, 1 repeat, is daily in- 
 creasing, owing to the spirit for improvement now spreading 
 through the United States, and to the high price of some 
 stock, particularly line woolled sheep, the demand for which 
 even in the case of peace, will rapidly increase, from the 
 mere increase of population. 
 
 2. The veterinary science offers a new and respectable 
 means of employment to its professors. 
 
 It must be obvious, that to the medical practitioner in the 
 country, the knowledge of the diseases of domestic animals 
 will be tbe means of not only greatly extending the sphere 
 of his utility, but his personal consideration, particularly 
 with respect to the noble animal the horse, which always 
 contributes so largely to our wants, wbieh augments our 
 enjoyments, and preserves our health, and is on many oc- 
 casions an object of particular interest, from the circum- 
 stances of cost and individual merits, Will the young 
 practitioner think that he derogates from his medical dig- 
 nity by performing an act of humanity, and extending the 
 sphere of his usefulness in any way connected with the ex- 
 ercise of his profession, especially in one that has engaged 
 the attention and labour of some of the most eminent men, 
 both of ancient and modern time, in Europe ?— -AVill he de- 
 rive no satisfaction— -nay more, will he not add to his medi- 
 cal eclat, or obtain pecuniary recompense, from saving the 
 life of a favourite racer of a sportsman, or the hackney of a 
 wealthy invalid ? Will he not think himself well employed 
 in setting the leg of a horse of the hunter breed, so valuable 
 for cavalry, and the carriage, and which, although no longer 
 able in consequence of the accident to shine in the field, may 
 still propagate his valuable race ? 
 
 3. In the United States, an additional necessity for atten- 
 tion to improvement in our knowledge of veterinary medicine 
 arises not only from the fact of our ignorance of the sub- 
 
Diseases of Domestic Animals. 
 
 21 
 
 ject ; but of our stock being liable as well to the common dis- 
 eases to Avhieh they are from their nature exposed in all 
 countries, as to peculiarly fatal diseases, the origin of which 
 is involved in great obscurity. 
 
 In the states of South Carolina and Georgia, cattle brought 
 from Europe, or from the interior, to the vicinity of the sea, 
 are invariably attacked by a disease which is generally fatal. 
 Cattle from the interior of the state of South Carolina, (but 
 only a particular district,) so certainly disease all others with 
 which they mix in their progress to the north, that I am told 
 they are prohibited by the people of Virginia from passing 
 through the state. The singularity of a fact attending the 
 disease is, that the cattle alluded to have the power of in- 
 fecting others witli which they associate, while they tliem- 
 selves are in perfect health ohis I can assert from my own 
 personal observation, in the year 1796. The particulars of 
 this singular but fatal complaint I shall hereafter detail. 
 Pennsylvania has to regret the loss of many thousand 
 horses, by a disease which deserves no other name than yel- 
 low fever. I allude to the “ yelloio xvaier,” the symptoms 
 and method of cure of Avhich are totally different from the 
 jaundice, yellows, or yellow water of Europe. This disease, 
 I have reason to believe, is peculiar to North America.®* 
 
 Europe furnishes no disease similar to the mortification 
 in the limbs of the New England cattle nor to that peculi- 
 ar salivation Avhich has Avithin the last tAventy years attack- 
 ed our horses, from eating second crop grass, particularly 
 red clover,®^ and Avhich from its debilitating effects, amounts 
 to a disease. For the last four or fire months, a ncAv and 
 very fatal disease has prevailed among the horses in the vi- 
 cinity of Ncav BrunsAviek, Ncav Jersey. 
 
 4. It has already been shoAvn, that by means of compara- 
 tiA'e anatomy Ave have ascertained the uses of various organs 
 of the human body ; and I now can add, that by an attention 
 to the diseases of brute animals, the folloAving advantages 
 have also resulted to mankind. 
 
22 On Comparative Anatomij, and the 
 
 1. We have been enabled to obtain precise ideas of the 
 nature and seat of some serious diseases of the animal frame. ! 
 Of the facts illustrative of this position, one of the most im- j 
 portant to mankind is the knowledge of the cause of the lo- 
 cal and general disease that sometimes succeeds the opera- 
 tion of bleeding in the arm. — 'For a long time the inflamma- 
 tion and suppuration beginning at the orifice made by the 
 lancet, and the fever that ensued, were ascribed to a punc- 
 ture of the tendon of the biceps muscle, or of the fascia of 
 the arm, or of a nerve ; by others these symptoms were sup- 
 posed to originate from a bad habit, or from the introduc- 
 tion of some poison adhering to the lancet ; but that great 
 benefactor to medical science and to surgery, the late John i 
 Hunter, of London, having observed a similar accident to 
 take place after the rough operation of bleeding horses in the 
 neck, was led to ascribe the disease in both eases to the 
 same cause, viz. the inflammation of the internal coat of the 
 vein ; and repeated dissections of inflamed veins, in which | 
 the operation had been performed, have proved the accura- 
 cy of his opinion. By the elucidation of the disease in ques- 
 tion, Mr. Hunter has made us acquainted with the true cause ^ 
 and seat of a serious disease, and increased the obligations i 
 he has laid the medical world under by his other improve- 
 ments in surgery and medicine.** 
 
 2. We have been indebted to the brute creation for one of 
 the greatest temporal blessings, ever conferred upon man- j 
 kind by Providence, in the discovery, that by conveying from 
 
 a small pustule on the teats of the udder of the cow, a par- 
 ticle of matter, under the cuticle of the human subject, he 
 was forever secured against that scourge of his existence, 
 the small pox. If before this new source of happiness to 
 mankind had been drawn from this useful animal, such an 
 event as that just now mentioned, had been declared within 
 the compass of possibility, the supposition would have been 
 thought as improbable as that which I now venture to make, 
 viz. that there is just reason to believe, as in the instance 
 
Diseases of Domeslie tAnimals. 
 
 eye* 
 
 here exhibited, the possibility that an incapacity of being 
 I acted upon by the canine virus in both man and animals, 
 may be produced by exciting in them a previous disease. 
 
 In alluding to the disease sometimes produced by the bite 
 of a rabid animal, I am sorry, very sorry to be obliged to 
 declare, that it still continues to humble the pride of the me- 
 dical profession. We know indeed its peculiarities and symp- 
 toms, and I myself have contributed to elucidate its patbo- 
 logyj but we also know its extreme fatality 5 and with regard 
 to the means of cure, the learned and experienced physician 
 is brought at once to the level of the most uninformed among 
 the multitude ; for, gentlemen, the disease has never been 
 cured, and to this day, we are obliged to remain the helpless 
 spectators of our patient’s sulferings.’® 
 
 But we must not despair ; for I cannot think that Provi- 
 dence has determined to permit this disease to he forever in- 
 curable, and can any more powerful argument be adduced 
 for investigating the diseases of domestic animals, than the 
 knowledge of this fact, that all of us are cvei’y day of our 
 lives liable to the attack of an aAvful and incurable malady 
 from one of them, and who is the gratcfisl companion, and 
 faithful midnight defender of our bouses and property ? On 
 this disease I shall deliver a particular lecture ; and although 
 I will not assert that I can point out a mode of cure, yet it 
 will still be useful to investigate its pathology, for truth is 
 always elicited by discussion. 
 
 3. An attention to the diseases of domestic animals is more- 
 over of infinite importance to the practitioner of medicine in 
 another point of view : for by them we are led sometimes 
 to anticipate fatal epidemics, and of course are provided with 
 the means of guarding against them. Homer tells us, that 
 the plague that spread among the troops at the siege of Troy 
 with great fury, first made its appearance among dogs and 
 cats. In the plague that ravaged the island of Egina, to 
 the south of Athens, about sixty years before the Trojan 
 war, and of which Ovid has given an affecting account/' the 
 
2-i 
 
 On Convparativc JLnalomy, and the 
 
 disease also first invaded dogs, then sheep and oxen, and 
 lastly mankinds The pestilence eindeinic among the cattle, 
 in the year 576, at Rome, was succeeded the next year by 
 a mortal plague.®* 
 
 Dr. Sims of London, informs us, that the scarlet fever 
 which prevailed with very great mortality in the city of Lon- 
 don, in the year 1798, was preceded by a remarkable epide- 
 mic among cats, which is said to have killed myriads of them. 
 In the following year an epidemic prevailed among the hor- 
 ses, which appeared to he a peripneumony, attended with a 
 discharge from the nostrils like glanders. A similar mor- 
 tality among cats prevailed in the months of May and June, 
 in 1797, in Philadelphia, and destroyed thousands of them : 
 and we all remember the pestilential fever that prevailed 
 during the following autumn. Fish too, often experience 
 the effects of a pestilential atmosphere,^ of which the history 
 of the epidemics in 1793, 179i, and 1797, in our own country, 
 afforded strong proofs.®® 
 
 In other cases, epidemic diseases, or a general unhealthi* 
 ness of the air, have been preceded or accompanied by a vast 
 increase of insects and small animals. Of this, a number of 
 instances might be mentioned, from Lord Bacon respecting 
 tlie plague in London in 1666 ; from Diemerbroek on the 
 same disease in Holland in 1635 and 1636 ; from Baddam, 
 on the plague of Dantzick in 1709 ; and from the account of 
 the epidemic at Bengal in 1771. 
 
 During the fever at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1633, 
 the woods were filled with innumerable large flies, of the 
 size of bees, 6® and during the pestilential time in the United 
 States, between 1792 and 1801, various other insects abound- 
 ed in different parts.®^ In particular, during the year 1798, 
 grasshoppers overspread the country ; and we know that 
 that year Mas very unhealthy. In the year 1805 also, the 
 grass Mas destroyed by them in the low counties of New 
 Jersey; and the same year, such was the mortality in Salem 
 county, that I M as informed the courts could not proceed in 
 
Diseases of Domestic Animals. 
 
 25 
 
 their business, owing to the death of many jurymen by 
 malignant fevers. The same year tlie yellow fever prevail- 
 ed in Philadelphia. Many more facts of a similar nature 
 might be mentioned, were it necessary. 
 
 In the prosecution of my course, it is my intention to adopt 
 the following plan : 
 
 1. I shall demonstrate the structure of different animals. 
 
 2. Explain the use and functions of the several parts, and 
 compare them with those of the human body. 
 
 3. Point out the causes, nature and symptoms of diseases 
 in our domestic animals, w ith the method of cure. 
 
 4^. Give the natural history, operations and doses of me- 
 dicines. 
 
 From this plan it will he seen, that farriery, strictly so 
 called, or what relates to the fashionable operations on a 
 horse, makes no part of the course. By thus separating the 
 scientific from the merely mechanical part, the veterinarian 
 science will be at once put in a condition to go hand in hand 
 with human medicine ; but it is proper to remark, that in 
 respect to the noble animal just mentioned, the preservation 
 of whose health is so essentially important to us, the proper 
 method of shoeing shall be taught, and directions given for 
 restoring to a natural state those hoofs which have been in- 
 jured by a bad system having been previously followed ; with 
 ample instructions how to preserve his health in all situa- 
 tions in which he may be placed. 
 
 vox. III. 
 
 f 
 
NOTES 
 
 TO THE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
 
 JV'*o/e 1. 
 
 See the Iliad, book 5, verses 65 and 30i. Book 11, verse 
 5T-i : other passages might be referred to. 
 
 J\'‘ofe 2. 
 
 Galen was a native of Pergainus in Lesser Asia; and af- 
 ter travelling wherever instruetion was to be obtained, settled 
 at Rome. Although a pupil of the Alexandria sehool, he 
 did not blindly adopt its dogmas. On the contrary, he thought 
 and acted for himself; as a proof of which it may be men- 
 tioned, that he disproved by a simple and obvious experi- 
 ment, the opinion it had long entertained and taught, (viz. 
 that the arteries carried air,) by laying bare a branch of one 
 of them, in a living animal, and dividing it between two li- 
 gatures. 
 
 JVotc 3. 
 
 This event, it is said, took place in the year 640 of Christ, 
 and that for six months the Turks heated their numerous 
 baths by the MSS collections of one thousand years. Tlie 
 fact is not credited by M. Renaudot or Gibbon. The writer 
 upon whose authority it is given, is Ahul Pharagius, “ and 
 the solitary report of a stranger, who wrote at the end of 
 600 years, on the confines of Media, is overbalanced by the 
 silence of two annalists of a more early date, both Christians, 
 both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, Eu- 
 tychius, has amply described the conquest of Alexandria.” 
 Gibbon’s Decline, &c. chap. 51. Eutychius lived between 
 
^''otes to InlroAuctonj Lecture. 
 
 27 
 
 the years 876 and 950. Abul Pharagius was a native of 
 Malatia, and died in 1286, at Aleppo, primate of the East. 
 His work (Historia Dynast.) was translated from the Ara- 
 bic, by the learned Pococke, into Latin, 1659. 
 
 JV’ofe 4. 
 
 Under the auspices of Almanzur, the second caliph, and 
 his son Abdallah, Bagdad arose and flourished in the East, 
 (762) and at once became the residence of the successors of 
 Mahomet, and for a long time the seat of all the learning in 
 that quarter of the world. The exertions of the learned 
 men of that day, however, were confined to translating an- 
 cient Greek manuscripts : they made no dissections. Never- 
 theless the spirit of inquiry was thus kept up, and to their 
 translations did the western part of Europe OAve their ac- 
 quaintance with the learning of the ancients. 
 
 JN^ofe 5. 
 
 AndrcAV Vesalius Avas born at Brussels about the year 
 1512 or 1514. He AA^as educated at Louvain, and studied 
 anatomy at Paris, under Sylvius. In 1537 he Avas appointed 
 professor at Padua, by the republic of Venice. Charles the 
 fifth called him to be his physician, and he Avas also physician 
 to Philip the second. He published his celebrated Avork, de 
 Humaiii Corporis fahrica, in 1543, Avhen only about 30 years 
 of age : in this he detected the anatomical errors of Galen, 
 and proved that he had taken his descriptions from brutes. 
 This service to truth raised him numerous enemies. He is 
 said to have been forced to fly, or to banisli himself, in con- 
 sequence of having opened the body of a Spanish nobleman, 
 supposed to be dead, but Avhose heart he found beating. 
 Other causes are ascribed for the act, but Avhatever Avas the 
 motive, he set out to visit Jerusalem Avith Rimini, general 
 of the Venetian army, and returning at the invitation of the 
 senate of Venice, to fill the chair at Padua, he Avas ship- 
 Avrecked, and died on the island of Zante, in 1564. 
 
 Fallopius Avas born in 1490, and was a pupil of Vesalius, 
 and aftcrAvards professor at Pisa, and at Padua, Avhere he 
 
as 
 
 J\*otes to Introduclory Lecturt. 
 
 died in 1563. Ilis works are contained in three volumes 
 folio. He was deemed among the lirst physicians and ana- 
 tomists of the age, and cultivated medicine and anatomy 
 with great zeal. 
 
 Eustaehius was contemporary with the two forinei', and 
 taught at Rome. He was a zealous anatomist, and the pas- 
 sage from the ear to the mouth is called after him, the Eu- 
 stachian tube. 
 
 Fahrieius Ah Aquapendente, (the preceptor of Dr. Har- 
 vey,) was professor at Padua, which for nearly 200 years 
 was the most respectable medical school on the continent of 
 Europe. His works were collected and published in Latin, 
 atLeipsic,hy professor llohn, in one volume folio, 1687, with 
 numerous plates. Besides much human anatomy, he has 
 treated largely of the organs of animals. 
 
 6 . 
 
 Nehemiah Grew, an ingenious and learned physician, was 
 the son of Mr. Obadiah Grew, minister in Coventry. Hav- 
 ing been sent to a foreign university for some years, he re- 
 turned, after taking the degree of doctor of physic, to Lon- 
 don, and was admitted to fellowship in the college of physi- 
 cians in 1680. He obtained extensive practice ; was elected 
 a fellow of the royal society ; and on the death of Mr. Old- 
 denburg, succeeded to the office of secretary ; in consequence 
 of which he carried on the publication of the Philosophical 
 Transactions for a considerable time. He also drew up a 
 catalogue of the articles in the museum of the society, which 
 he finished in folio, under the title of Museum Regalis So- 
 cietatis. To this is generally appended a work entitled the 
 « comparative anatomy of stomachs and guts,” being seve- 
 ral lectures read before the royal society in 1676. The work 
 however by which Grew is most deservedly celebrated, is 
 his anatomy of plants, in which he has shown a wonderful 
 degree of ingenuity. This work is accompanied by very nu- 
 merous and well executed engravings, and may be consider- 
 ed as one of the most curious performances of the seven 
 
JV\)f€S to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 29 
 
 teenth century. Another very celebrated publication of this 
 author, is the Cosmologia Sacra, or “ a discourse of the uni- 
 verse, as it is the creature and kingdom of God.” — This was 
 chiefly composed to demonstrate the truth and excellence of 
 the sacred writings. Dr. Grew died in 1711. Trans. Royal 
 Soc. Loud. J^ew JLhrid. vol. 1. page 660. 
 
 J\''ote 7. 
 
 Thomas Willis was born in Wiltshire, in 1621, and died in 
 1675. He was an excellent anatomist, as he has proved in his 
 Jlnatome Cerebri. He also wrote Pathologia Cerebri, and Be 
 Anima Brutorum. His works Avere published in London, 
 1679, in Latin, and 1681, in English. 
 
 8 . 
 
 Edward Tyson was a celebrated physician and anatomist 
 of the seventeenth century, and a great contributor to the 
 Philosophical Transactions, especially on subjects relative 
 to natural history and comparative anatomy. He read lec- 
 tures at Gresham college. Besides his numerous commu- 
 nications to the royal society, he published the following 
 works : Phocfena, or an anatomy of a porpus, 1680. Cari- 
 gueya seu Marsupiale Amerieanum, or the anatomy of an 
 opossum, dissected at Gresham college, 1698, (of Avhich an 
 account is also inserted in the Philosophical Transactions.) 
 The anatomy of a pigmy compared with a monkey, an ape, 
 and man, 1699. Trans. Royal Soc. Loud. JVeio Mrid. vol. 2. 
 page 448. 
 
 JV'ote 9. 
 
 Samuel Collins published “ a system of anatomy ofcthe bo- 
 dy of man, beasts, birds, insects and plants,” 2 volumes folio, 
 1685, Avith numerous plates, accurately representing the 
 parts described : there is as much comparative as human 
 anatomy in the Avork. < 
 
 JV'ote 10. 
 
 Richard LoAver Avas one of the best anatomists of the se- 
 venteenth century. He Avas educated at Oxford, took his 
 degree of M. D. in that University, and exercised his pro- 
 
30 
 
 ^"“otes lo Inlroduclovy Lecture. 
 
 Icssioii there for some years ; but at length removed to Lon- 
 don, where he got into extensive praetice. He and Dr. King 
 appear to have been the first avIio performed the experiment 
 of the transfusion of blood. Besides several papers inserted 
 in the Philosophical Transactions, he wrote a treatise, Avhich 
 procured him a great and deserved renown, de corde, item de 
 motii et colore sanguinis ct chyli in eum transitu, 1669. Among 
 other things in this treatise, he pointed out the difference 
 between arterial and venous blood, proving that the florid 
 colour of the arterial blood is derived from the air. Trans. 
 Royal Soc. Land. JSTew Ahrid. vol. 1. p. 197. 
 
 J\'ote 11. 
 
 John Conrad Peyer, M. D. rendered important services 
 to the anatomists of his day, by his Avork entitled “ Meryco- 
 logia, sive de ruminantibus ct ruminationc commentarius.” 
 Bazil, 1685. 
 
 Js^ote 12. 
 
 Rcgner de Graaf Avas born at Shoonhoven, in 16 il j he 
 studied at Leyden under de le Boe Sylvius and Van Horne j 
 but took his doctor’s degree at Angers, and practiced at 
 Delft. He Avas the author of the folloAving anatomical trea- 
 tises: De sued pancrcatici nalura, 166i>, and 1666 ; Devi- 
 vorum organis generationi inservientibus, 1668 ; De miilk- 
 rum organis generationi inservientibus, 1672 ; Defensio par- 
 tium genitalium, 1675. These Avere collected into one 8vo 
 volume, and reprinted after his death, under the title of 
 Opera Omnia, Leyden, 1677. He died prematurely when 
 only 32^ears of age, in consequence, as is supposed, of great 
 uneasiness of mind, brought on by the Avarm disputes in Avhich 
 he Avas involved Avith SAvammerdam. In his tract on the 
 pancreatic juice, he gives an account of a very difficult ana- 
 tomical experiment Avhich he performed on a living dog, 
 opening the abdomen, and inserting a tube into the pancrea- 
 tic duct, for the purpose of collecting the juice thereof; to 
 Avhich he, like Sylvius, ascribed acid properties. By his 
 other Avritings he thrcAV considerable light on the structure 
 
Xotes to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 31 
 
 and uses of the different parts belonging to the organs of ge- 
 neration in both sexes. Trans. Royal Soc. JVexo Jlbrid. vol. 
 ±, page 2ii. 
 
 De Gi’aaf also rendered essential services to anatomy, by 
 contriving convenient instruments for injecting vessels, the 
 idea of which had however occurred before to others, and 
 had even been carried into effect. 
 
 JV’ote 13. 
 
 Anthony Van Leewenhoek, so highly celebrated for his 
 curious microscopical observations, was a Dutch gentleman, 
 of Delft in Holland. He was born in the year 1632, and 
 died in 1723, aged 91 years. Leewenhoek was not, properly 
 speaking, a man of letters, hut from the extraordinary assi- 
 duity with which he pursued his researches into the minuter 
 parts of nature, and the striking novelty of the curious ob- 
 servations which he published, his name is perhaps more 
 frequently quoted by philosophers and naturalists, than that 
 of any other writer of his time. This celebrated observer 
 had the good fortune to live at a period, when the instru- 
 ment by which he obtained bis fame, was yet in some de- 
 gree in its infancy. He applied himself with unremitted 
 care to the grinding and polishing into a state of perfection, 
 the simple lens, as being the best calculated for accurate in- 
 vestigation ; and less liable to those deceptions which a com- 
 position of glasses sometimes occasions. So many, and so 
 extraordinary were the discoveries of Leewenhoek, that he 
 may be said to have brought into view a new world in sci- 
 ence ; and such was the general truth and fidelity of his ob- 
 servations and descriptions, and the respect paid to his com- 
 munications, that he has been not unaptly complimented 
 with the title of the Delphic Oracle, and yet he was not free 
 from errors. Trans. Royal Soc. Land. JVew Mrid. vol. 2, 
 page 66. 
 
 His works were printed in Latin at Leyden, in 1722, and 
 afterwards in Low Dutch and have been translated into 
 English by Samuel Hoole, London, 1800. 
 
32 
 
 Js*otes to Introdiictonj Lecture. 
 
 J\''ote 14. 
 
 Blazius published in 1681, a volume in quarto, on the ana- 
 tomy of various animals, with plates, entitled Jlnatomia Jlni- 
 maliumjiguris variis illustrata. He had previously publish- 
 ed a smaller one in 1673, entitled Jlnatome Hominis, Bruto^ 
 rimque variorum, and other works. 
 
 dVote 15. 
 
 John Swammerdam. This celebrated anatomist and natu- 
 ral historian was horn at Amsterdam in 1637. His father 
 Avas an apothecary in that city, and possessed a small cabi- 
 net of natural curiosities, by the frequent survey of which 
 his son acquired a taste for those pursuits, by Avhich he af- 
 terwards rendered himself so conspicuous. He studied at 
 Leyden, where he took the degree of doctor in medicine, in 
 1667, hut never engaged in the practice of physic, devoting 
 himself wholly to anatomical and physiological inquiries, 
 and to collecting and examinyig insects. Of this class of 
 animated beings he investigated the generation, structure, 
 and metamorphoses, with astonishing patience and assiduity, 
 and described and elucidated the same in his admirable work 
 entitled, « A general history of insects,” first published in the 
 Butch language, in 1669, and afterAvards translated into Eng- 
 lish. His Historia Ephemerse appeared in 1675. These and 
 other observations, relative to the natural history of insects 
 Avere collected into a folio volume, (Dutch and Latin,) print- 
 ed at Leyden in 1737, under the title of Biblia Naturae, sive 
 historia insectoriim. This edition Avas superintended by Bo- 
 erhave, Avho Avrote the biograpMcal memoirs Avhich are pre- 
 fixed to it j but the Latin translation was by Gaubius, pro- 
 fessor of pathology at Leyden. Besides a tract on respira- 
 tion, Swammerdam Avrote another anatomical Avork, entitled, 
 Miraculmn J^aturcc scu uteri mutieris fabrica, published in 
 1672. He appears to have been the first who practiced the 
 art of injecting the blood vessels Avith wax ; for his country- 
 man and contemporary Ruysch learned this method of him. 
 
 His collection of insects and other objects belonging to 
 
JS^otes to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 natural history, forM liich tlie Grand Duke of Florence once 
 offered him 12000 fforins, was sold for a very inconsiderable 
 sum. I'cans. Royal Soc. Loud. JK'^ew Jlhrid. vol. l*]j. 190. 
 
 Swammerdam first employed hot wax to inject into the 
 blood vessels. 
 
 J\''ote 16 . 
 
 Frederick Ruysch was born at theHague in 163S, studied 
 at Leyden, and settled at Amsterdam, on being appointed 
 professor of anatomy there. He formed a fine collection of 
 anatomical prcjiarations, and curiosities in natural histoi-y, 
 Avhieh was purchased by Peter the Great, and sent to Peters- 
 burgh. He died in 1731, aged 91 years. Ruysch excelled in 
 the art of injecting the blood vessels, and in filling the ca- 
 pillary vessels. He also employed maceration and erosion. 
 He first discovered valves in the lymphatics, and contributed 
 largely to the progress of anatomical knowledge by his la- 
 bours. His Avorks make four volumes quarto, enriched with 
 a great number of plales. 
 
 jVote 17. 
 
 Rudbeck Avas born in Sweden in 1630, Avas professor of 
 physic in the university of Upsal, and founder of the botanic 
 ganlen there. 
 
 Xote 18. 
 
 Thomas Bartholine Avas the son of Caspar Bartholine, (a 
 man of universal erudition,) he ’arss Jt ffrst made professor 
 of mathematics, at Copenhagen, bcif afterwards filled the 
 anatomical and medical chair in that university. In this si- 
 tuation he discovered the lymphatic vessels. He also traced 
 the course of the thoracic duct in the human subject, con- 
 firming and elucidating Pecquet’s description thereof. His 
 anatomical and medical Avritings are very numerous. This 
 celebrated man died in 1680, aged 6i years. Philos. Trans, 
 abridged, vol. 1, p. 247. 
 
 J^^oic 19. 
 
 Mareellus Malphigi Avas born in tlie year 1628, near Bo- 
 logna, Avhere he studied and graduated, M. D. in 1633. He 
 
J\'‘otc$ to Inlroduclorij Lcclure. 
 
 3i' 
 
 Mas elected to the professorsliip of the theory of medicine 
 in tliat university, in 1656, but soon afterwards accepted of 
 a similar appointment at Pisa, which situation he resigned 
 at the end of three years, as the air of that place was pre- 
 judicial to his health. In 1662, he succeeded Castelli in 
 the professorship of physic at Messina, where he remained 
 four years, and then returned again to Bologna. Here he 
 continued as a teacher of medicine in the highest repute, 
 Iroin 1666 to 1691, when he was invited to Rome, and ap- 
 pointed chief physician to Pope Innocent XII. He died at 
 Rome of an apoplexy, in 1691. Malphigi’s labours have 
 throAvn great light upon the structure and physiology of the 
 human, brute, and vegetable creation ; as may be seen by 
 consulting his Jlnatomc Plantarum, Epistolce AnatomicK, 
 Exercitationes tAnatomicce, Dissertationes dc JJtero, de For- 
 matione j)ulli in ovo, de honibyce, &c. These tracts were col- 
 lected intotw'o folio volumes, printed in London in 1686, un- 
 der the title of Malphigii opera Phijsica et Medica. And in 
 1697 a third folio volume appeared, containing his Opera 
 Postliuma. In his anatomical investigations he resorted to 
 Avhat in those days Avere iieAV methods ; viz. to maceration 
 of the parts, injection of the vessels Avith coloured liquors, 
 and the employment of magnifying glasses. By such means 
 he Avas veiy successful in developing the intricate structure 
 of some of the viscera in man and quadrupeds, as Avell as the 
 minute fabric of insects and vegetables. He appears to have 
 been the first Avho used the microscope for examining the 
 circulation of the blood. Trans. Moyal Soc. Land. JTav ,*3.1). 
 Tol. 1, p. 190. 
 
 Francis Redi Avas born at Arezzo, in 1626 ; studied phy- 
 sic at Pisa ; Avas appointed physician to Ferdinand II, and 
 aftei'Avards to Cosmo III, for Avith the family of the Medici, 
 literary and scientific merit led to preferment, and was sure 
 of receiving its due tribute and rcAvard. After his death, in 
 1698, Cosmo caused a medal to be struck to perpetuate his 
 name. Ilis letters (2 vols. 8vo) contain a variety of medi- 
 
JV"o{cs to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 35 
 
 eal cases and remarks, wUli observations on anatomy, natu- 
 ral liistory, and experimental philosophy. His style is re- 
 garded hy his countrymen as higlily classical. His works 
 amount to 7 volumes 4to. Hutchinson, vol. 1, p. 429. 
 
 JS'ole 20 . 
 
 Casserins wrote Be voce uuditusquc organis historia ana- 
 tomica. Paris, 1600, folio, with plates and cuts. 
 
 J\"'otc 2H 
 
 The title of one of Perrault’s Avorks is OEuvres diverses 
 de Phisiqnc et de Meclianique, far Mess. C. & P. Perrault, 
 (a Avork of the latter, on fountains, having been published 
 with those of his brother Claude,) Leyden, 1622, 2 vols. ito. 
 
 Claude Perrault also Avrote Memoires pour servir d Vhis- 
 toire naturelle des aniinaux, 1676, folio. He Avas an excel- 
 lent architect, and designed the superb entrance of the Lou- 
 vre. lie died in 1687, aged 75. His life may be seen in 
 Hutchinson’s Biographia Medica, Ijondon, 1799. 
 
 G. J. Duverney, professor of anatomy, Paris. Haller says 
 of him, ‘‘per sexaginta annos innumerabilia corpora incidit, 
 ct a praxi etiam medica abstinuit, ut inter mortuos viveret ; 
 multorum certe inventorum auctor, que aliis nominibus tri- 
 buuntur.” Bibl. Anat. tom. 1, p. 626. Duverney Avas the 
 human and comparative anatomical pioneer of the latter part 
 of the J 7th, and beginning of the IStli centuries, 
 
 Xole 22. 
 
 D’Aubenton gave the anatomy of most of the animals, 
 Avhose natural history Avas described by Buffon. Two edi- 
 tions AA ere originally published of Buffon’s Avork one in ito. 
 and another in 12mo. — But later French and English editions 
 have omitted the anatomical parts. 
 
 Mote 23. 
 
 Yic D’Azyr, the son-in-laAV of D’Aubenton, Avas a very 
 able human and comparative anatomist ; he compiled the 
 excellent system of comparative anatomy inserted in the 
 Mouvellc Encyclopedie Methodique in Avhich the anatomy of 
 each animal is given separately ,• and published many papers 
 
36 
 
 ^^oles lo Introductory Lecture. 
 
 on the subject in the Memoirs of the French Academy. The 
 anatomy of each animal is given separately, whereas Cuvier 
 and Blumenbach treat the subject according to the organs 
 and functions of the body. 
 
 J^otc 24. 
 
 An excellent account of Camper may he found in the New 
 Edinburgh Encyclopsedia, published by Edward Parker, 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Me 25. 
 
 Cuvier’s work is entitled Lecons D’Anatoinie Comparee ; 
 in 5 vols. 8vo. and a 6th of plates, Paris, 1805. The two 
 first vols. have been translated in Loudon by Mr. Ross under 
 the direction of IMr. McCartney, lecturer on comparative 
 anatomy. A larger work by Cuvier is shortly expected on 
 the same subject. 
 
 JVote 26. 
 
 Blumenbaeh’s work is in one vol. 8vo. and forms an ex- 
 cellent compend of the science. It is well translated by 
 Mr. Lawrence of London. The transactions of the royal 
 society of London contain a great number of papers on com- 
 parative anatomy by various persons : a list of which is 
 given in Dr. Thompson’s excellent and, entertaining “ His- 
 tory of the Royal Society from its institution to the end of 
 the ±8th century, London, 1812,” p. 112. The subjects be- 
 ing scientifically classed, by Dr. Thompson, a reference to it 
 will save much unnecessary labour in searching the volu- 
 minous work of the society for a paper on comparative 
 anatomy, or any other subject that he may wish to investi- 
 gate. See also the article Comparative Anatomy” in the 
 Philadelphia edition of the New Edinburgh Encyclopfcdia 
 for a list of authors and papers on our subject. 
 
 JVote 27. 
 
 The title of Herder’s profound work is “ Outlines of the 
 philosophy of the history of man, by John Godfrey Herder.” 
 An English translation was published by T. Churchill, Lon- 
 don, 1800, 4to. 
 
JVo/es to InlrodHclory Lecture. 
 
 jyote 28. 
 
 Anatomists might have reasonably concluded that Galen’s 
 anatomical descriptions had been taken from brutes ; be- 
 cause, although he says, he had dissected many of the latter, 
 yet he makes no mention of having examined human bodies : 
 we know also that he expressly advises physicians to prac- 
 tice the dissections of apes and monkeys, and not to lose the 
 opportunity of dissecting human subjects if by chance, the 
 German war, or any other accident, they should find one ; 
 and had Galen ever dissected a human body, his vanity Avhich 
 is so conspicuous in his writings would not have permitted 
 him to conceal the fact. Vesalius first discovered that 
 Galen’s description of the human body Avas formed from the 
 dissection of brutes, by comparing his descriptions Avith the 
 actual structure of the parts as laid open by the knife, and 
 for this service to medicine and to truth he excited the en- 
 mity of all the medical professors, Avho had been promulgat- 
 ing Galen’s mistatements, as truths. 
 
 J\'ofes 29, so. 
 
 Trans. Royal Soe. London, 1797. 
 
 A^ofe 31. 
 
 Harvey’s account of his discovery is entitled “ Exercitatio 
 Anatomica de Cordis et sanguinis motu.” It is an extraordi- 
 nary circumstance that the circulation of the blood through 
 the body, should not have been discovei ed before the time of 
 Harvey, considering that the fact (although not founded on 
 experiment) is plainly asserted by Plato, Avhose Avritings had 
 been so long familiar to the learned Avorld. “ The heart, 
 says he, is the centre or knot of the blood vessels : tlie spring 
 or fountain of the blood Avhieh is carried impetuously round; 
 the blood is the pabulum, or food of the flesh : and for the 
 purpose of nourishment, the body is laid out into canals, like 
 those Avhich are draAvn through gardens, that the blood may 
 he conveyed, as from a fountain to every part of the pervi- 
 ous body.” 
 
3S 
 
 J^otes to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 Hippocrates also speaks of the “ vessels communicating 
 Avith each other, and of the hlood undergoing a kind of flux 
 and reflux from and to the heart like the ebbing and flowing 
 of the sea,” and even mentions the throbbing of the temporal 
 arteries, as an evidence of the fact. Galen also had (as I 
 have before said,) showed that the arteries contained blood 
 as well as the veins, by the simple experiment of dividing a 
 branch between two ligatures in a living subject, and thus 
 disproved the opinion of the Alexandria school, that they 
 merely contained air. The lesser circulation, or that through 
 the lungs, had been ascertained by Servetus a Spanish phy- 
 sician, and by Columbus the pupil of Vesalius, and was known 
 to other eminent men ; and Coesalpinus an Italian even men- 
 tions the communication between the arteries and veins at 
 their extremities, and speaks of the valves of the arteries 
 and auricles as capable of preventing the return of the blood, 
 but still it is apparent from other parts of his writings that 
 he had no consistent idea of their use or of the circulation. 
 Further, the early discevery of the valves of the heart, and 
 those placed at the mouths of the large arteries which had 
 been made by Erasistratus ; of those in the veins of the ex- 
 tremities by Sylvius, as mentioned by Stephanus, and the dis- 
 covery of similar valves in the veins of the arm by Fabricius 
 of Padua, the preceptor of Harvey, it Avould seem might 
 at once have led to the belief of the existence of a similar 
 organization in the veins of other parts of the body, and to a 
 knowledge of their use in preventing the return of the blood, 
 to the extremities, and to the deduction of its having been 
 previously carried from the heart by tlie arteries. It was 
 this organization of the veins that furnished Harvey with one 
 of the strongest arguments in favour of his sublime dis- 
 covery. Finally, says Dr. Hunter, “ the obvious phtenomena 
 in bleeding animals to death, the different effects of ligatures 
 on different vessels, the practice of surgery with regard to 
 bleeding and blood vessels, the action of the heart when ex- 
 posed to view in living bodies, all these so evidently proclaim 
 
^'"otcs to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 33 
 
 the circulation, tliat there seems to have been nothing more 
 required for making the discovery than laying aside gross 
 prejudices, and considering fairly some obvious truths.”* 
 Yet anatomists continued until the time of Harvey to assert 
 that the liver was the source of blood, and that from it, the 
 vital fluid was distributed to other parts of the body. 
 
 For an account of the opposition made to Dr. Harvey by 
 the envious part of his contemporaries, and of the injurious 
 effects which this sublime discovery had upon the temporal 
 prosperity of its author, the reader is referred to Dr. Rush’s 
 volume of Introductory Lectures, a work which ought to be 
 in the possession of every gentleman, and of every professor 
 of divinity, medicine or law. — The life of Harvey may be 
 found in Hutchinson’s Biograpliia IMedica. 
 
 JV'otc 32. 
 
 See Cruikshank’s anatomy of the absorbent vessels, p. 30, 
 London, 1790. The history of the absorbents is curious and 
 extremely Interesting. — Erasistratus the grand son of Aris- 
 totle had certainly discovered these vessels in the intestines 
 of a kid, but he thought they were arteries and agreeably to 
 the opinion of the Alexandrian school of which he was a 
 pupil, he supposed they contained air like other vessels of 
 the same nature. These vessels are also hinted at by Hip- 
 pocrates, and Galen, but their real use was ascertained by 
 Azellius of Cremona in 1622, who in dissecting first a dog, 
 and afterwards other quadrupeds, observed vessels contain- 
 ing a milky fluid to commence from the intestines •, but though 
 he traced them to a cluster of glands which he called pan- 
 creas, yet because he also found a few similar vessels on the 
 liver he supposed that viscus to be their final place of termi- 
 nation. The result of the labour of Azellius was published 
 with coloured plates in 1627, after the death of the author, 
 and the year before Harvey’s work on the circulation came 
 
 Tntrodvictoiy Lecture, p. 43. 
 
40 
 
 vYoles lo Inlvodiiclory Lcclure. 
 
 out : for many years both these works excited great interest 
 and the anatomists of all Europe were zealous in verifying 
 their discoveries, and in testing their remarks hy the dissec- 
 tion of living animals. At length Pecquet of Paris saw the 
 chyle actually floAving into the heart of a living dog in a 
 regular stream, and traced the source of this fluid to the com- 
 mon receptacle of the thoracic duct. He published his ac- 
 count in 1651 : Eustachius before had seen this duct, hut did 
 not knoAV the real use of it : he called it vena sine parL Van 
 Horne a Dutch professor laid claim to the merit of the same 
 discovery the following year. Eustachius had a century be- 
 fore discovered the same vessels in a horse, hut he was igno- 
 rant of their use in the economy of the animal, or of their 
 origin. The honour of ascertaining both points was reserv- 
 ed for Pecquet. The discovery of another set of absorbents, 
 Avhich arise from all the cavities of animal bodies soon fol- 
 lowed hy the dissection of dogs, viz. in 1651 or 1652. These 
 were called lymphatics from the pellucid nature of their con- 
 tents, and were found toeiulAvith the laeteals in the thoracic 
 trunk. In later times, the same system of vessels Avas found hy 
 various anatomists in all other animals that Avere examined, 
 of both land and water, and in the human brain hy Mascagni 
 of Italy, from Avhosc dissections a series of the most elegant 
 plates have been published. The merit of discovery of the 
 lymphatics in other parts of the body, besides the intestines, 
 Avas due to Bartholine and Rudbeck, Avho Avere contempora- 
 ries in the 17th century. The priority of time hoAvever hy 
 a fcAV months seems to belong to Rudbeck, although Bartho- 
 line first published his account of the lymphatics. 
 
 33. 
 
 Dr. EdAvard Stevens of St. Croix : his experiments are 
 contained in his inaugural dissertation on digestion, Edin- 
 burgh, 1777 : a very good abstract of them may he found in 
 Smellie’s philosophy of natural history. Dr. Stevens made 
 some of liis experiments upon an Hungarian. 
 
JS^otes to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 41 
 
 JS'*i)te 34. 
 
 New Edinburgh Encyclopsedia, article comparative anato- 
 my. In this way the vermicular and peristaltic motion of 
 the bowels — the respiration of birds, and the action of their 
 gizzards, &c. &c. were ascertained. 
 
 JS^ote 35. 
 
 The spleen has been extracted from dogs and other animals 
 without any injury, and even from man : as Haller shows 
 by numerous authorities : Phys. tom. 6, p. 421, 4to, Lugdun. 
 Batav. 1764. Mr. Shipton cut out two fingers length of the 
 ilium of a dog, without injury to him. Phil. Trans. No. 283. 
 Dr. Musgrave cut out the cpecum of a bitch, without any in- 
 jury. Phil. Trans. No. 151. The late Dr. Jones of Phila- 
 delphia cut off a portion of the pancreas of a man, that pro- 
 truded from a wound, and he did well. 
 
 J\Tote 36. 
 
 One dog lived « for more than twelve months, with the 
 two carotids, the two femorals, and one brachial artery ob- 
 literated.” The vessels were tied in succession, after the 
 wounds of a previous operation had healed. The dog whose 
 aorta was tied, lived two years, and was then killed ; and 
 the body being injected, the anastomosing vessels were beau- 
 tifully seen. Med. and Chirurg. Trans. London, vol. 2. 
 
 ^^ote 37. 
 
 The saving of life by taking up the vessels of the neck, or 
 the large vessels of the extremities, when they are diseased 
 or wounded, is a modern improvement in surgery. In form- 
 er times, death in the one ease, and the loss of the limb in 
 the other, was tlie fate of the sufferer. 
 
 Mr. John Bell of Edinburgh, took up the posterior iliac 
 artery, in consequence of its division, by the points of a long 
 pair of scissars, “ at the place over the sciatic notch, Avhere 
 it comes out from the pelvis j” it was tied exactly where it 
 turns over the bone, and the man was cured, and walked 
 stoutly.” Surgery, 4to, vol. 1, p. 423. 
 
 h 
 
 vox,. III. 
 
^''oles to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 vZ. 
 
 Mr. Abcrnethy of London, first tied the external iliae ar- 
 tery above Poupart’s ligament, Avliieh operation he perform- 
 ed in a case of femoral aneurism. His first and second at- 
 tempts were unsuccessful, owing to the desperate nature of 
 one case, and an unusual occurrence in the other. Mr. A. 
 afterwards was happy in saving two lives by it.* Mr. Freer 
 and Mr. Tomlinson of Birmingham, performed the same ope- 
 ration with success, each onee.f Dr. Dorsey also perform- 
 ed it in the Pennsylvania Hospital, in 1811, successfully.:]: 
 The patient walked on the twentieth day. Mr. Astley 
 Cooper of London, has also tied tlie carotid artery for aneu- 
 rism, in two cases, the first, in 1895, was in the right caro- 
 tid ; death took place from “ an inflammation of the aneu- 
 rismal sac and parts adjacent, by which the size of the tu- 
 mour became increased so as to press on the pharynx, and 
 prevent deglutition, and upon the larynx, so as to excite vio- 
 lent fits of coughing, and ultimately impede respiration.” 
 In the second case, in 1808, the disease was in the internal 
 carotid, and was cured. See Medieo-Chirurgical Trans, vol, 
 1, pages 1 and 222. London, 1809. Dr. Post of New York, 
 has also within the last year successfully operated in 
 New York for aneurism in the carotid artery.:]; See also 
 Mr. Cooper’s account of the dissection of a limb, in which 
 the operation for poplitial aneurism had been performed, 
 in the Medieo-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. 2, London, 
 1812. 
 
 eYofe 38. 
 
 Professor Camper rendered most important services both 
 to human and comparative anatomy. His account of the dis- 
 section of apes, monkeys and ourans outang is inserted in the 
 Trans. Royal Soc. London, for 1779 — vol. 69, and is entitled 
 
 * Surgical observations on the constitutional origin and treatment of local 
 diseases, and on Aneurisms. London, 1809. 
 f Freer on Aneurism. Birmingham, 1807, 41o. 
 
 Dorset’s Surgery, vol. 2. 
 
J\'otes to Introdiiclory Leeliu'e. 
 
 43 
 
 On the organs of speech of the ouran outang.” But as 
 these animals cannot speak, the expression should have been 
 voice and not “ speech.” — Dr. Tyson of London Avho Avas 
 himself an accurate dissector, had published in 1699 “ ourang 
 outang, or the anatomy of a pigmy compared Avith a monkey, 
 an ape and man,” 4to. Avithout discovering the difference be- 
 tween their organs of speech and voice. Albinus, Martini 
 and even D’Aubenton are also silent on the striking construc- 
 tion of this organ in apes. The merit of professor Camper 
 Avas therefore the greater, for it unraA'elled the mystery of 
 their incapacity of speaking, although possessed of organs, 
 (as Avas supposed) equally Avell adapted to the end, as those 
 of man. Mr. White confirms professor Camper’s statement, 
 and exhibited a preparation of the membranous bag of the 
 monkey to the Manchester Society. Account ol' the regu- 
 lar gradation of man, by C. White, p. 27 — London 1799. 
 There can be no doubt of the confirmation, nor any difficul- 
 ty in accounting from it, for the Avant of speech in ourans, 
 apes, &c. Lord Monthoddo labours hard to prove, Avith 
 Rousseau, the humanity of the ouran outang, and accounts 
 for the difference between the result of Tyson’s and Camper’s 
 dissections of ourans, by the circumstance of the first having 
 examined one from Angola, and the other those from 
 Borneo. See Origin and Progress of Language, vol. 1. 
 p. 344: and Ancient Metaphysics, vol. 3. p. 44. No anatomist 
 or natural historian Avho grounds his distinctions of animals 
 upon anatomy will attend to this argument. 
 
 tMofc 39. 
 
 D’Auhenton, by the dissection of a camel for Buffon’s na- 
 tural history, had many years since actually found a consi- 
 derable quantity of Avater in the cells of the stpmach, though 
 the animal had been dead ten days. The Avater Avas clear, 
 almost insipid, and drinkable. He therefore assents to the 
 assertion of travellers, that camels are killed for the Avater 
 in their stomachs. Perrault, Avho dissected a camel in 1676, 
 Mem. de I’Acad. de Seien. tom. 3, Avas of the same opinion, 
 
JN'*otes to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 
 but Mr. Home has put tlie question beyond all doubt, by the 
 dissection of a camel in London, in the year 1806 j an ac- 
 count of which may be found in the Trans, of the royal soci- 
 ety Lond. for that year. He fully and vei-y clearly explains, 
 from the structure of the camel’s stomach, how that animal 
 is enabled to take in a supply of water for future use, thus 
 fitting him to live in sandy deserts, where supplies of water 
 are precarious or scanty. 
 
 Hr. Russel says he knew an instance of a camel in a Bas- 
 sora caravan, remaining fifteen days without water j but 
 none of the natives recollected a similar instance. Leo Afri- 
 canus however mentions one. Descript. Africa;, lib 9, p. 281. 
 Dr. Russel says that camels sometimes show a preference 
 for salt w ater. Nat. History of Aleppo, vol 2, p. 167, 168, 
 London, 1794, 4to. 
 
 A’ote 40. 
 
 Chemistry also has recently lent its aid to disprove a po- 
 pular error, which has long prevailed respecting the origin 
 of the salt familiar to most persons by the name of sal am- 
 moniac, which was first brought to Europe from Egypt, and 
 was said in early times to be formed by the action of the 
 camel’s urine upon the sands of the desert, near the temple 
 of Jupiter Ammon. Lemery and Pomet both give assent to 
 this notion, and the latter, in his history of drugs, gives a 
 plate of a camel in the act of discharging his urine, and the 
 mass of salt forming in consequence of it under his body !* 
 But the recent analysis of the urine of the camel, shows that 
 ammonia exists in it in so small a proportion, as to render 
 it impossible to suppose it could have the leasd; agency in the 
 formation of the salt in question. 
 
 The analysis of the urine of camels referred to, was made 
 by two good chemists, in different countries, viz. Messrs. 
 
 * Pomet on Drugs, page 250. London, 1737. The work was originally pub- 
 lished in French, in 1694. Lemery derives ammonia from afxfjios, (ammos) 
 arena, sand. 
 
Jfotes to Introductory Lecture, 
 
 45 
 
 Rouelle ia France and Mr. Brande in London, and their 
 agreement in the general result, leaves no douht as to the 
 accuracy of it. 
 
 Analysis of the camel’s urine, as given by Mr. Home. 
 
 BRANDE, 
 
 ROUELLE.* 
 
 Water, ... 
 Phosphat of Lime, 
 
 Muriat of Ammonia, j 
 
 Sulphat of Po .ash, ^ 
 
 Urat of Potash, ( 
 
 Carbonat of Potash, J 
 
 Muriat of Potash, 
 
 Urea, . . . , 
 
 75 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 Carbonat of Potash, 
 Sulphat of Potash, 
 Muriat of Potash, 
 Urea. 
 
 * Thompson’s Chemistry, second 
 Edition, vol. 4, page 655. 
 
 95 
 
 The urine of cows was also analyzed by both Mess. Brande 
 and Rouelle, both of whom agree in stating that potash is 
 the only fixed alkali in them. 
 
 We now know that the salt which the ancients called sal 
 ammoniac, was common salt : and that the true sal ammoni- 
 ac is not found native. The Egyptians are stated to have 
 procured it by sublimation from soot of cow’s or camel’s 
 manure, urine and common salt ; but fi’om accounts trans- 
 mitted to the royal society at Paris, it appears certainly that 
 this salt is procured by sublimation from the soot taken alone 
 without any addition. Nicholson’s Chemical Dictionary, vol. 
 1 , p. 116 ; and Magellan’s edition of CronstadCs Mineralogy, 
 p. 458. The soot taken from the chimneys in which cow 
 dung only, as fuel, is burnt, is said to furnish the best sal 
 ammoniac. This salt is however commonly prepared from 
 burnt bones, in the United States, and in Europe. 
 
 From Vauquelin’s analysis of the urine of various animals, 
 (Annales de Chimie, tom. 82, p. 197,) it appears that the 
 urines of the lion and the tiger are perfectly similar, and 
 differ from the human in some essential points. 
 
 1 . It is alkaline, even at the instant of being voided, and 
 hence its bad odour 5 while the urine of a healthy man is al- 
 ways acid. 
 
i6 
 
 e/Voies to Inlvoduclovij Lecture. 
 
 2. They do not contain any uric acid, nor any combination 
 of this acid with the alkalis. The defect of uric acid in those 
 urines, struck Mr. Vauquelin more forcibly, as he used to 
 ascribe its formation to animal food. 
 
 3. They contain only a very small quantity of muriate of 
 soda, (sea salt,) whereas that of man contains a great deal. 
 We find in these urines, much urea, phosphates of soda and 
 of ammonia, sulphate of potash, mucous matter, and a trace 
 of iron. The urine of the heaver has a great resemblance 
 to the urine of herhiverous animals ; that of a rabbit, con- 
 tains lime, magnesia, and carbonate of potash, sulphates of 
 potash and of lime, muriate of potash, urea, gelatine, and 
 sulphur. He did not find any soda in the urines of the ca- 
 mel, cow, Guinea pig, or rabbit. The urine of the horse, 
 according toFourcroy and Vauquelin, (Thompson’s Chemis- 
 try, vol. 4;,) contains carbonates of lime and of soda, much 
 benzoat of soda, muriate of potash, and urea. Mr. Braude’s 
 analysis of the horse’s urine, agrees with that of Messrs. 
 Fourcroy and Vauquelin, but he also found in it sulphate of 
 soda, muriate of soda, but no urea, potash or ammonia. Mr. 
 Brande found that tlie urine of the ass contains a much great- 
 er relative proportion of the phosphat of lime and urea, also 
 carbonate, sulphate, and muriate of soda, and a small quan- 
 tity of potash. The urine of both the horse and ass is des- 
 titute of ammonia. 
 
 The foregoing details of the urine of various animals are 
 given, as being connected with the interests of agriculture ; 
 urine having been found to be highly stimulant to vegeta- 
 bles : and from the abundance of certain ingredients in that 
 of a particular animal, and their deficiency in others, we 
 may ascertain why certain urines are prejudicial, or useful 
 to particular plants. 
 
 JVotc 41. 
 
 The notion of the submersion of swallows during winter is 
 of Swedish origin. Olaus, the bishop of Upsal first promul- 
 gated it, and naturalists more worthy of attention assented 
 
to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 47 
 
 to it. Linnseus confined submersion to ebimuey swallows 
 and martins. Kalm his pupil believes the story, and begins 
 the discussion of the subject by saying that “ natural history 
 like all other histories depends not always upon the intrinsic 
 degree of probability, but upon facts founded on the testi- 
 mony of people of noted veracity.”* But this testimony must 
 not violate probability, nor be inconsistent with one of the 
 first rules of philosophising, viz. that “ like causes produce 
 like efiTeets now, if we find that the lungs of two animals 
 are constructed precisely alike, and that one of them cannot 
 live under water, we must conclude that the other is also defi- 
 cient in that same power. This is the ease with man and 
 swallows: both are formed alike, and hence they must be sub- 
 ject to the - same laws. Those w ho wish to see more on this 
 question are referred to apaper I published (anonymously) in 
 the Med. Repository of N. York, vol. 3, p. 241. — 1800. Bar- 
 ton’s Fragments, Philad. 1799, Caldwell’s Memoirs, 1801, 
 and to Observations on the brumal retreat of the sw allow s,” 
 by Thomas Foster, F. Lin. Soc. London, 1813. The argu- 
 ments of this author in favour of the sw allow being a bird of 
 passage are indisputable : he has also annexed an index to 
 passages relating to the sw allow in the w orks of the antients, 
 and in modern European authors, which is curious and 
 highly interesting. 
 
 JVote 42. 
 
 Adrian Vandervcdde was born in 1639 at Amsterdam, and 
 was a pupil of John Wynants. He died at the age of 33. 
 See further, Pilkington’s dictionary of painters, p. 686, ito. 
 London, 1798, and Camper on the connexion between ana- 
 tomy and drawing, &e, translated from the Dutch by Dr. 
 Cogan, London, 1794.'^ 
 
 ^ JV*ote 43. 
 
 Aristotle long sinc^.remarked that the motion or steps of 
 animals in general are made in the line of their diagonal : 
 
 * Travels, vol. 2, p. 140, 
 
4S 
 
 JV'otes to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 that is, in the dii'ection of their two opposite quarters. The 
 absurdity of the error noticed is evident. But the camel 
 forms a striking exception to the rule : he walks by raising 
 the two legs of the same side, the one immediately after the 
 other. AristoteL de hist, animal, lib. 11, cap. 1. Dr. Rus- 
 sel confirms Aristotle’s statement. Nat. Hist, of Aleppo, vol. 
 3, p. 169, & p. 4-23. The engravings of the skeletons of 
 some of the animals in Buffbn’s natural history, particularly 
 of the horse, are very inaccurate. 
 
 Artists should read the following works besides Camper’s. 
 
 1. Refleetions on the painting and sculpture of the Greeks, 
 with instructions for the connoiscur, and an essay on grace 
 in works of art, translated from the German original of the 
 Abbe Winkleman, by Henry Fusseli, London, 1765 — 8vo. 
 
 2. Count Algarotti on painting, London, 17 63 — 12mo. 
 
 3. Dr. Brisbane on the anatomy of painting, with 6 plates, 
 London, 1769. 
 
 4<. Essays on the anatomy of expression in painting, with 
 plates, by Charles Bell, 4?to, London, 1804?. This last is by 
 one of the first anatomists of the present day, and ought to 
 be studied by every painter or engraver, of either man or 
 animals. 
 
 J^ote 44. 
 
 Gentleman’s Magazine, 1790, p. 299. 
 
 JV’otc 45. 
 
 See an aecount of a case of croup in a calf, in memoirs of 
 the Philadelphia society for promoting agriculture, vol. 3, 
 by Mr. Peters, president of the society. 
 
 46. 
 
 Alemoirs medical society, London, vol. 5. 
 
 eA*ote 47. 
 
 This disease has prevailed with great mortality in Phila- 
 delphia county during the last spring. Mr. G. Montague 
 gives some reasons, for believing that by mixing the food of 
 foAvls with urine instead of water, and feeding them with it 
 three or four times a day, it may he removed. Memoirs of 
 
J^'^otes to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 49 
 
 Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soe. Edinburgh, vol. 1. 1811. Mr. 
 Peters informs me that he eures it by small pills of camphor, 
 given twice a day. 
 
 J\''otes 48, 49. 
 
 Gentleman’s Magazine, 1790, page 497. 
 
 JV’ofe 50. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence, “ Philosophical and practical treatise on 
 horses,” has justly ridiculed, and with much pleasantry, the 
 absurd farrago of nostrums administered by farriers. 
 
 JS''ote 51. 
 
 1 was told by an intelligent drover, that it is the cattle 
 from the district of the long-leaved pine, that possess the 
 power of diseasing other cattle. This species is the Finns 
 vlustralis of Miehaux, Finns Falustris of Linnseus, the pitch 
 pine, yellow pine, red pine, or broom pine. According to 
 Miehaux, the country occupied by this pine commences near 
 Norfolk, and continues in a south west direction for 250 
 leagues in length, and 40 to 50 in breadth. See Histoire dcs 
 Jlrbres Forestiers de L’Amcr. Septent. Faris, 18i0. I Avould 
 be very thankful for any information on the subject of the 
 disease in question. We sec something similar to the dis- 
 ease produced among northern cattle, by mixing with those 
 from the south, in the human race. During the revolution 
 war in the United States, the mixture of southern with 
 northern troops, speedily induced disease, if encamped to- 
 gether, although both had been previously healthy. See 
 Rush’s Works, vol. 1. In like manner, the mixture of the 
 crews of ships of different nations, at sea, has often produ- 
 ced disease. See Blane’s diseases of seamen, page 235 ; and 
 the arrival of a stranger at St. Kilda, one of the remote and 
 small western islands of Scotland, produces a catarrh among 
 the inhabitants. — Martin’s History of the Western Islands, 
 page 284. The case of the South Carolina cattle is how ever 
 peculiar. W'e do not find that those from other states pro- 
 duce a similar complaint, or any other, w hen mixed with the 
 stock of Pennsylvania. The fatal disease alluded to, that 
 
 VOI.. III. 
 
 I 
 
50 
 
 ^'"otes to Introductovif Lecture. 
 
 occurred in 1796, in one instance, at Columbia, on the Sus- 
 quohannah, attacked stock vliich liad merely strolled about, 
 or bad lain down in a ploughed field, in which the South 
 Carolina cattle liad been previously penned for one night; 
 a full proof of the virulence of the effluvia left by them on 
 the ground. The precaution suggested by the foregoing 
 facts, in grazing, and in armies and navies, is obvious. 
 
 JYote 52. 
 
 See Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for promoting 
 Agriculture, vol. 1, pages 139, 154. 
 
 J\''ote 53. 
 
 See account of this disease, by the Rev. Mr. Parsons, in 
 the New York Medical Repository, vol. 1. 
 
 J\'ote 54. 
 
 See Archives of useful knowledge, vol. 1, page 398, and 
 vol. 2, page 400. 
 
 JVote 55. 
 
 For Mr. Hunter's account of the inflammation of a vein 
 from bleeding, (which is highly interesting,) see Transac- 
 tions of a society for the improvement of medical and chi- 
 rurgical knowledge, London, 1793, page 18. Also, Dorsey’s 
 Surgery, vol. 1. The late Mr. Wignell, of the Philadelphia 
 Theatre, died of this disease. 
 
 Inflammation in the veins of horses or man, after bleed- 
 ing, according to Hunter, arises from not fully closing the 
 external wound, “ and when inflammation takes place be- 
 yond the ^ orifice, the surgeon should immediately put a 
 compress upon the vein, at the inflamed part, to make the 
 two sides adhere together : or if they do not adhere, yet 
 simple contact will be sufficient to prevent suppuration in 
 tliis part : or if inflammation has gone so far as to make the 
 surgeon suspect that suppuration has taken place, then the 
 compress must be put upon that part of the vein just above 
 the suppuration. This I once practiced, and as I suppose, 
 with success.” If the disease proceeds, bleeding and other 
 depleting remedies are to be used. Dr. Physick has applied 
 
^'‘otes to Introductory Lecture. 
 
 51 
 
 a blister ^ver the part with success. Dorsey’s Surgery vol. 1. 
 
 “ Upoa tracing the vessels, after death, from the inflamed 
 part,” Mr. Hunter says, “ pus is found mixed with the blood. 
 In some places the sides of the vein were adhering, and in 
 others the ^nner surface of the vein was furred over with 
 coagulable 1 miph.” 
 
 J^ote S6. 
 
 The cases of the cure of the disease produced by the bite 
 of a mad dvg, in Calcutta, which have been recently pub- 
 lished by Mr. Tymon, Dr. Shoolbred, and Dr. Berry, ought 
 possibly to be adduced as exceptions to the general position ; 
 but we must have more cures by the same remedy, before it 
 can be Said to be safe. It never has succeeded before in any 
 count 'j. See Medical Repository, vol. 2, New Series, and 
 Eclectic Repertory, Philadelphia, vol. 3, for the cases al- 
 luded Is). 
 
 JS'^ote 57. 
 
 Meta n. lib. 7. v. 523. 
 
 Jfote 58. 
 
 Liv^v, lib. 41. 
 
 59. 
 
 M?m. Med. Soc. London, vol. 5, and Webster’s history of 
 epide mic and pestilential diseases, vol. 1, pages 139 and 321. 
 Harubrd, 1799. 
 
 J\'’otes 60, 61. 
 
 Webster, vol. 1, pages 86, 181, and other places. Mr. 
 WeLster has rendered an essential benefit to medicine, by his 
 gre 1 collection of facts on the subject of epidemic diseases, 
 an ^by showing their connexion with, and occasional depen- 
 dence on natural phfenomena. 
 
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