This subject has not been treated of by the writers in our own language so extensively as it deserves, eager as they have proved themselves to make enquiry into everything that is either meritorious or profitable. M. Cato, that great master in all useful knowledge, was the first, and, for a long time, the only author who treated of this branch[1] of learning; and briefly as he has touched upon it, he has not omitted to make some mention of the remedial treatment of cattle. After him, another illustrious personage, C. Valgius,[2] a man distinguished for his erudition, commenced a treatise upon the same subject, which he dedicated to the late Emperor Augustus, but left unfinished. At the beginning of his preface, replete as it is with a spirit of piety,[3] he expresses a hope that the majestic sway of that prince may ever prove a most efficient remedy for all the evils to which mankind are exposed.