Here, reader, is our _materia medica_; wherein you will find a number of harmless, yet efficient agents, that will, in the treatment of disease, fulfil any and every indication to your entire satisfaction. They act efficiently in the restoration of the diseased system to a healthy state, without producing the slightest injury to the animal economy. The Almighty has furnished us, if we did but know it, a healing balm for every malady to which man and the lower animals are subject. Yet how many of these precious gifts are disregarded for the more popular ones of the chemist! Dr. Brown, professor of botany in the Ohio College, says, "Of the twenty or more thousand species of plants recognized and described by botanists, probably not more than one thousand have ever been used in the art of healing; and not more than one fourth of that number even have a place in our _materia medica_ at present. The glorious results, however, attending the researches of those who have preceded us, should inspire us with that confidence and spirit of investigation which will ultimately result in the selection, preparation, and systematic arrangement, of a full, convenient, and efficient _materia medica_." Unfortunately, the medical fraternity, as well as the farmers, have been accustomed to judge of the power of the remedy by its effects, and not in proportion to its ultimate good. Thus, if a pound of salts be given to a cow, and they produce liquid stools,--in short, "operate well,"--they are styled a good medicine, although they leave the mucous surface of the alimentary canal in a weak, debilitated state, and otherwise impair the health; yet this is a secondary consideration. For, if the symptoms of the present malady, for which the salts were given, shall disappear, nothing is thought of the after consequences. The cow may be constipated for several succeeding days, and finally refuse her food; but who suspects that the salts were the cause of it? Who believes that the abstraction of ninety ounces of blood cut short the life of our beloved Washington? We do, and so do others. We are told, in reference to the treatment of a given case, that "the patient will grow worse before he can get better." What makes him worse? The medicine, surely, and nothing else. Now, if ever symptoms are altered, they should be for the better; and if the medicines recommended in this work (provided, however, they are given with ordinary prudence) ever make an animal worse, then we beg of the reader to avoid them as he would a pest-house. This is not all. If any article in this _materia medica_, when given, in the manner we recommend, to an animal in perfect health, shall operate so as to derange such animal's health,--in short, act pathologically,--then it does not deserve a place here, and should not be depended on. But such will not be the result. We recommend farmers to select and preserve a few of these herbs for family use; for they are efficient in the cure of many diseases.