CHAPTER XV. 



MEDICAL AND SURGICAL TREATMENT OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



I SHALL offer no apology for taking the material of this chapter 

 almost exclusively from the writings of others. The question of 

 the diseases of domestic animals is one of such great importance 

 that it has received a good share of the attention of able men for 

 many years. Old and barbarous practices, which entailed more 

 suffering than benefit upon the poor brutes, are being rapidly 

 given up, and, under the light afforded by considerate and 

 thoughtful men, the treatment of even the most severe cases is at 

 least much more humane than it formerly was, and, in proportion 

 to its humanity, is undoubtedly more successful. 



Unfortunately, as in the case of the treatment of the diseases 

 of the human race, nearly all recipes and instructions are more 

 or less empirical, the administering of medicines belonging, as 

 yet, by no means to the list of " exact sciences." The most 

 that can be said in favor of the directions of veterinary surgeons 

 is, that they have, especially during the last twenty years, devoted 

 an untiring energy and sound judgment to an investigation of the 

 causes of disease and of the effects of remedies ; and that they 

 have, as a consequence, rejected many things that were formerly 

 considered of absolute necessity, and have substituted simple 

 remedies for severe ones. 



It has now come to be a recognized fact with veterinary sur- 

 geons, livery-stable keepers, and intelligent farmers, that the 

 sovereign remedy for external injuries, and for all strains, bruises, 

 irritations, and cutaneous affections, is water. Applied hot or 

 cold, as the occasion may require, and accompanied by the neces- 



