INTRODUCTION. 3 



and remedies, so that they may be applied in time of need, 

 and where a regular veterinary practitioner is not at hand. 



Some of the diseases incidental to horses and cattle are 

 so marked in their character, that a little experience will 

 easily enable a person accustomed to be among those animals, 

 to detect it with facility, and in such cases, medicine may be 

 safely administered, according to the rules we have laid down ; 

 but there are other disorders, whose characters are of a more 

 complicated form, which ought not to be treated by a person 

 uneducated in the veterinary art. In such cases it will 

 always be found safer and cheaper in the end to apply to 

 regular practitioners. 



Although in a certain sense there is some analogy between 

 the diseases of man and animals, yet these are exceedingly 

 different in their specific characters, and consequently in the 

 remedies applied for their cures ; the construction of the 

 stomach, the length of the alimentary canal and small intes- 

 tines, with other organic distinctions — all combining to 

 render the specific quantity and character of the medicines 

 to differ essentially. 



Nevertheless, it is quite possible to acquire a thorough 

 knowledge of all that is known in the veterinary art, by per- 

 sons in private life ; although considerable study, as may 

 well be supposed, is necessary to attain this degree of 

 knowledge. 



The first thing to be studied is to acquire a knowledge of 

 the skeleton, then of the muscles, and lastly of the internal 

 organization. The two first of these are pretty much alike 

 in all our domestic animals, but a very great difference will 

 be found in the internal structure. For the skeleton and 

 muscles, works and good engravings will give a good idea to 

 the beginner ; and after acquiring the names of the difierent 

 bones and muscles, the student must practise upon dead 



