6 PREFATORY. 



those objects ; for it is a well-known fact that medicine, 

 unaided by nature in the silent operation of the life 

 forces, is, in most cases, positively useless. Some knowl- 

 edge of the law of physiology, as it applies to brute 

 bodies, is indispensable for the successful treatment of 

 disease ; and all who practise the veterinary art should 

 study that law, not only in view of practising understand- 

 ing^, but for the more important purpose of preventing 

 many thousands of unnecessary cases of disease and pre- 

 mature deaths that are annually occurring among all 

 classes of live stock ; for many diseases and premature 

 deaths follow encroachments on the sanative laws of life. 

 The more a man knows of physiology, the less faith has 

 he in medicine. He resorts to our great catholicon, Na- 

 ture. Animals, if left to themselves, invariably do the 

 same thing ; they seek rest and some simple agent which 

 their own instinct points out as the Balm of Gilead, and 

 they almost invariably recover, except when about run- 

 ning their last race. The province of the physician is to 

 know when to withhold medicine ; for many diseases are 

 self limited, and would, if the patient were placed in fa- 

 vorable circumstances, run through their various grades 

 up to a healthy termination without the use of some of 

 the trash styled medicine. 



Those who wish to practise according to the princi- 

 ples laid down in this work must learn to exercise pa- 

 tience, and practise a rational expectancy. Nature per- 

 forms all her operations in a series of slow and gradual 

 changes, and any attempts to hurry her can only be 

 accomplished at the expense of the vital principle. The 

 reader will perceive that the therapeutic agents are 



