A handwritten recipe for the botts, a parasite that affects horses, in Gervase Markham’s "The Citizen and Countryman’s Experienced Farrier" (Wilmington, Delaware: James Adams, 1764). Ingredients include vinegar, molasses, and gin.
Over the past twelve months the National Library of Medicine, a principal partner in the Medical Heritage Library, has been digitizing books from its early American medical book collection, and included have been a number of important and interesting items relating to veterinary medicine.
Many large medical historical collections contain books about early veterinary medicine because so many physiological phenomena
Title page of Gervase Markham’s "The Citizen and Countryman’s Experienced Farrier" (Wilmington, Delaware: James Adams, 1764), the second book published in North America specifically related to horse care.
affecting humans and animals were recognized early on to be similar. The curious early physician could perform dissections and experiments on animals that couldn’t easily be done on human subjects, and literature on animals, primarily horses, often employed theories already in place for humans, such as the humoral theory and astrology. Hence early veterinary texts often give a window into early medical theories and practices relating to human health.
Among the early American veterinary materials digitized by NLM is an edition of Gervase Markham’s The Citizen and Countryman’s Experienced Farrier, which was printed in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1764. Typical of early American scientific publications, it was a reprint of a British text- in this case one that was written in the 16th century and printed many times before its publication in North America. The author Gervase Markham (1568-1637) was an English poet and soldier of fortune who wrote this widely used manual on horse care that began coming out in the 1590s. The edition digitized by NLM is only the second book specifically focused on horse care printed in North America and is of interest to printing historians because it was produced by Delaware’s first printer, James Adams, who only set up his press in that territory a few years before in 1761. The book is unillustrated, but it contains numerous handwritten recipes for home remedies, including one for the botts (see image), a parasitic infection that affected horses.
It wasn’t for many decades that texts by American horse farriers and veterinarians began to be published in what was now the United States. An elegant example is William Carver’s Practical Horse Farrier, or, The Traveller’s Pocket Companion: Shewing the Best Method to Preserve the Horse in Health, published in Philadelphia in 1820. Carver’s text and images are largely derivative of earlier European horse manuals but adapted to the environmental conditions faced by horses in North America.
The original versions of these two books are currently on display until October 3 in an exhibition at the National Library of Medicine entitled, “From Craft to Profession: The Transition from Horse Farrier to Professional Veterinarian.”
Other interesting books on horse veterinary medicine to be found in NLM’s Digital Collections include:
James Carver. Veterinary Science: Being an Address to the Gentlemen, Farmers and Graziers of Long Island, Shewing in a Brief View the Importance of Introducing this Branch of Domestic Science, with a View of Ameliorating the Diseases of that Noble Animal the Horse (Brooklyn, 1816).
Paul Jewett. The New-England Farriery (Hudson, NY, 1806).
William McCrumb. The Horseman’s Friend (Greenville, Ohio, ca. 1850).
Nelson Titus. The American Eclectic Practice of Medicine, as Applied to the Diseases of Domestic Animals (New York, 1862).
James White. A Complete System of Farriery, and Veterinary Medicine (Pittsburgh, 1832).
For more information about NLM’s Digital Collections and books relating to horse care, please contact Michael North, Head of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts at northm (at) mail (dot) nih (dot) gov.
The skeleton of a horse, from William Carver’s "Practical horse farrier, or, The traveller's pocket companion: shewing the best method to preserve the horse in health" (Philadelphia, 1820).