PREFATORY. 7 



selected with an eye single to their innoxious qualities — 

 not calculated, like some horse medicines, to make a "well 

 horse sick, but for the very reverse of this. 



Health, however, must not be supposed to exist in 

 drugs and physic balls. The sick animal must be trans- 

 ferred within the ramparts of the science of life, the 

 means for accomplishing which are comprehended in a 

 strict system of hygiene, and without which medicine may 

 as well be thrown to the dogs as given to a sick horse. 

 The author considers it due to himself to state that he 

 still adheres to those opinions promulgated in former 

 works regarding the vile practice of bloodletting, and the use 

 of agents that are known to depress the vital principle ; and 

 his aim is, and ever will be, so long as he has the power, 

 to substitute sanative medication for that which experi- 

 ence has proved destructive, and to advocate the cause 

 of those denied the power of speech — unable to plead their 

 own cause. 



If there is credit following the labors of the author 

 in the cause of reform, he declines receiving it, for it is 

 the property of the profession at large. He is indebted 

 to physicians of all ages and sects for many suggestions 

 and facts that have illuminated his professional path ; 

 and he has no disposition to see laurels placed on the 

 wrong brow. 



Some change has, however, taken place in the author's 

 views regarding the several medical sects. He was for- 

 merly somewhat of a specialist, wedded to one particular 

 system of practice ; he now practises without regard to 

 sect, — eclectically, — selecting from the various systems 

 those means and agents best calculated to aid, foster, 



