INTRODUCTORY. 



The universal popularity and pre-eminence in the pub- 

 lic favor, both in this country and England, of Mr 

 Youatt's work on the Horse, is well known. It has had a 

 far wider circulation in the United States than any other 

 veterinary work, and but for one or two circumstances, 

 it is believed, had prevented it from attaining a still 

 vastly wider circulation, — from becoming the common 

 hand-book of nearly every farmer in the land w^ho breeds 

 or owns horses, who is willing to read anything on a sub- 

 ject in which he is so much interested. 



The first of these circumstances is the size of Mr. 

 Youatt's entire work. This renders it too expensive for 

 general circulation. And it is too minute and voluminous 

 in its details for ordinary readers. This elaborateness, so 

 far from aiding, confuses the common reader ; the precise 

 facts which he seeks — the symptoms and remedies of dis- 

 eases, &c., — are too often so scattered through the glow- 

 ing amplifications of the accomplished author, that it is 

 difficult to clearly distinguish, collect, and apply them. 

 And many are repelled not only from the work itself, but 

 from reading the author's discussion of a disease, a point 

 in breeding, or the like, from impatience of its mere 

 », ^47, ij^ ^ work of this kind, more perhaps than any- 

 where else, applies the often quoted remark of Dr. 

 Johnson : " Books that you may carry to the fire, and 

 hold reading in your hand, are most useful after all 

 A man will often look at them, and be tempted to go on, 

 when he v^ould have been frightened at books of a larger 

 stzc, an-d of a more erudite appear anr p. " 



