EXAMINATION OF HORSES 



obtains so conspicuously in the sister profession, we 

 should have had a hundred workers in the field, each 

 with his book, and that book containing the same 

 matter, in another form, of every other book on the 

 same subject, embodying the one idea — too often 

 forced — which has acted as the excuse for its author. 



Without further comment we will, if you please, take 

 a general view of the ground we propose going over, 

 and then enter into particulars ; the importance of 

 which must be ever present before you, in order that 

 what may seem to you trivial and of little importance 

 may not be overlooked or passed by Hghtly. 



You will be called upon frequently in your pro- 

 fessional career to decide, not upon the particular 

 ailment, its causes, effects, and probable termination, 

 from which an anmial may be suffering; but upon 

 the far weightier question, in many cases, as to whether 

 the horse is or is not in sound health in wind and 

 limb, and if not, as to how far he is unsound, and 

 how far the unsoundness is likely to interfere with 

 those duties which are to be expected of him. So 

 that you see there is this difference in the latter 

 case as compared with the former, you have a patient 

 which is likely to live, and be a living testimony to 

 the truth or error of your prognosis. But this is not 

 all : your mistakes, if any, will too often be set down 

 for something worse, and your actions will not seldom 

 be interpreted as dishonesties. Such, then, being the 

 importance of the duties you will have to perform 



