6 PREFACE 



success. Some are satisfied with caustics, oth- 

 ers with lancing and irrigations, others with 

 bacterins, while a few of the more daring pre- 

 fer radical surgery that removes the causative 

 elements. To these plans might also be added 

 that of those who avoid fistula of the withers 

 entirely, because of the discredit meddlesome 

 intervention generally brings them. 



In every rural community of the Middle 

 West the empiric finds a fruitful field for ex- 

 ploitation in the many chronic, loathsome, half- 

 cured fistula of the withers found in the hands 

 of owners willing to try anything after having 

 given up in despair the various treatments that 

 have failed. 



If this book will do no more than to inspire 

 the veterinary practitioner to approach this 

 ailment in a matter of fact manner and to han- 

 dle it according to the common laws of modern 

 surgical procedure; and if it will discourage a 

 continuance of the half-hearted and always un- 

 satisfactory methods in vogue, the effort will 

 not have been lost. The Author. 



Camp Mills, N. Y., December, 1917. 



