Z THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



no less by veterinary surgeons than by others who have to do 

 with cattle, that the want of a carefully- written work, dealing 

 with the more general and practical aspects of bovine and 

 ovine medicine and surgery, is widely felt. Yet it is far more 

 easy to realise a deficiency which exists than it is to supply what 

 is lacking, and in this case the diflBculties are perhaps exception- 

 ally great. Several causes conduce to the fact that the sciences 

 of therapeutics, surgery, and pathology, in their relation to 

 cattle, are as yet in their infancy. As years roll on, those who 

 have to do with oxen will become more and more deeply con- 

 vinced that it is frequently advisable to hand over to the care of 

 the veterinary surgeon many cases which are now summarily, and 

 often without due thought, consigned to the butcher's tender 

 mercies. It is, indeed, very clear that a great deal of special skill 

 and practical scientific knowledge is frequently required in order 

 that one may be able to adequately balance the advantages and dis- 

 advantages which attach themselves to the alternatives of treat- 

 ment or slaughter. Evidently it is often of pressing importance 

 to determine when it would be advisable to avoid the risk of a 

 lingering illness or that of a fatal termination, whereby the loss 

 resulting from the carrying out of curative measures may be 

 made twofold. In many cases, too, such points as the risk of 

 spreading infection to other animals in contiguity with those 

 which are suifering, and also the question whether the flesh 

 would, in case of slaughter, be good for human food or not, pre- 

 sent themselves for most careful consideration. Of such kind 

 are the difficultiesof judgment with which the veterinary surgeon 

 and his employer, the owner, have to grapple, often, too, at 

 very short notice. It is, moreover, clearly manifest that the 

 mutual advantage of both parties interested will be enhanced in 

 proportion as the sciences of medicine and surgery primarily, and 

 those of bovine medicine and surgery specially, advance to 

 greater precision and accuracy. When one considers that whole 

 herds of cattle are liable to be mown down by severe plagues, 

 which may sweep along their terrible course even throughout a 

 whole country, and when one reflects also that certain diseases of 

 man, such as tuberculosis (generally known as consumption), 

 scarlet fever, and others, are traceable in many cases to similar 

 diseases in oxen, it will be seen that the magnitude and import- 

 ance of the subject we are treating can hardly be over-estimated. 



