AUTHOR'S ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC. 



At a time when the attention of the people is almost daily called to 



new books, the author of one bearing the title of this may reasonably 



be expected to show why such a work is necessary, and wherein it may 



prove of sufficient benefit to entitle it to a place in the library of every 



person interested in horses. A few facts will show the necessity for such 



a book as this claims to be, in the preface. In the United States there 



are but few educated horse doctors, or veterinary surgeons — not one to 



be found in many of our largest cities, or even in an entire State. Many 



years will pass before men educated for the business of doctoring horses, 



and following it as a profession, will become sufiBciently numerous to be 



within the reach of every neighborhood. Now, the diseases of the horse 



are very numerous, and present a great variety of symptoms ; so much 



so, that a case seldom occurs on which all the bystanders who profess 



some knowledge are agreed. And, I may add, the horse is often treated 



for the wrong disease, amid this confusion of opinion, and not unfre- 



quently loses his life by such treatment. Now, in the absence of men 



educated as horse doctors, on whose judgment we may rely, is it not our 



only safe way of guarding against fatal mistakes, to have at hand a book 



written in plain language, which explains carefully every symptom of 



every disease, and points out especially those symptoms which distinguish 



each disease from every other for which it is liable to be mistaken V — and, 



not only so, but which tells what to give, the quantity to give at a dose, 



how to give it, what effect it will have, when to give more, and when to 



(vii) 



