PREKACK. 



If an apology should be deemed necessary for any apparent tardiness 

 in the execution of the special undertaking of which the present work is 

 the result, it will not be very far to seek, but may be readily found by a 

 reference to the various and unceasing vocations in which the author of 

 the Manual of Operative Veterinary Surgery is habitually engaged. 

 The labor of its preparation has, in fact, been alternated and shared with 

 that of other literary engagements of an imperative and unremittent char- 

 acter, and the onerous and exhaustive duties pertaining to his collegiate 

 functions, to say nothing of the demands of an extensive practice. 



Engaged for years in the work of teaching this special department of 

 veterinary medicine, and having abundant opportunities, which have not 

 been neglected, of realizing the difficulties which the student who earnestly 

 strives to perfect himself in his calling is obliged to encounter, I formed 

 the determination long since to do what lay in me to facilitate his acquisi- 

 tion of knowledge; and it was then that I projected the present volume, 

 and began the accumulation of material by the compilation of data and 

 arrangement of memoranda, with the recorded notes of my own experi- 

 ence, the fruit of a long and extended practice before referred to ; and of 

 course a careful study of the various authorities who have illustrated and 

 organized our copious veterinary literature. Moreover, haste in the pub- 

 lication, and a thorough digestion of the subject and the systematic order- 

 ing of material, could not be very easily combined, and a little delay in 

 the issue will prove no detriment to the value of the book. 



With his own kind permission, the work is dedicated to Professor 

 A. Chauveau, General Inspector of the Veterinary Schools of France, as a 

 token of my high appreciation of his services as a scientist, and in recog- 

 nition of his standing among the lights of our profession ; and especially 

 of ray estimation of his excellent book on anatomy, in which he so ably 

 lays the foundation of the knowledge which constitutes the indispensable 

 condition of all success in surgical practice. 



