INTRODUCTION 



THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



The experiences of the Itinerant Horse Phy- 

 sician as recorded in the following pages can 

 never again be duplicated, for matters veterinary 

 have changed for the better throughout the 

 regions he traversed. Still the deplorable condi- 

 tions dependent upon unregulated veterinary 

 practice of unqualified men calling themselves 

 veterinarians, is yet a serious problem in far too 

 many localities and states ; and this work cannot 

 fail to help solve that problem by placing vividly 

 before the whole profession and others interested 

 the real calamity that unqualified veterinarians 

 constitute to the live stock industry. Never before 

 has the evil of the charlatanic veterinarian been 

 portrayed in such glaring ugliness or condemned 

 so tellingly. 



It must not be thought that the author or the 

 publisher hold out the example of the Itinerant 

 Horse Physician for the emulation of the young 

 practitioner; rather is it to show the folly of 

 believing the largest and ripest berries are always 

 to be found on the next bush. But along with 

 considerable information of a scientific nature, 

 many a lesson in self-reliance can be gleaned 

 from these pages that will stand the young prac- 

 titioner in good stead when he faces that greatest 

 problem of a veterinary practice — the public. 



The historical value of this record of expe- 

 riences of the Itinerant Horse Physician is not 



