PREFACE. 
WE believe it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, 
that no book has yet been published, in the English or any 
other language, which even professes to give a complete descrip- 
tion of the Natural History, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, and 
General Management of the Horse, ina form and style suited to 
the country gentleman of the nineteenth century. It is true, that 
some of these departments are adequately described in separate 
works; but they are generally written in technical language, suited 
rather to the Veterinary Student than for the use and compre- 
hension of the ordinary reader. The writings of Percivall in 
England, and of Girard, Chauveau, and Colin in France, contain 
full and accurate details of the Anatomy and Physiology of this 
animal; while the Structure and Diseases of his foot have been 
. the subjects of various elaborate treatises by Bracy Clark, Spooner, 
Coleman, and Turner, in this country. But in order to reach the 
information which he requires, the reader has to wade through 
many long and wearisome chapters, wholly irrelevant to the prac- 
tical subjects in which he is interested, and he therefore gives 
up the study in disgust as a hopeless task. So also, in reference 
_ to the general diseases of the horse, Percivall’s ‘“ Hippopathology ” 
is a mine of information ; but it is so elaborate, and so diffuse in 
style also, that it is consequently never or rarely seen on tho 
~ library shelves of the private gentleman. Stable management was 
well described by Stewart, of Edinburgh, five-and-twenty years 
ago, and his work still continues to be the best manual on this 
particular subject; but since jt was written many great changes 
b 
