V-SF4:5-/ 







PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 



As this work goes to press, the author is confined to his 

 bed with a painful and protracted sickness, rendering him 

 unable to write a preface. Were he able to do so, however, 

 he would not be called upon to make an apology for the 

 issue of such a work. It needs no apology. It meets our 

 most sanguine expectations, and we feel sure it will receive 

 the warm approbation and cordial support of those interested 

 in the horse and mule. 



The work had a natural origin, and a slow, healthy growth 

 and development, arriving at full maturity before being sent 

 forth to the world. The author commenced the study of the 

 subject some twenty years ago, for the purpose of discover- 

 ing rational modes of treatment for Fistula and Big Head, 

 which were making fearful ravages among his own stock, 

 the only modes of treatment known being the barbarous and, 

 to a great extent, ineffectual ones, still in general practice in 

 many localities in the Valley of the Mississippi. At the 

 time, he had no idea of pursuing the subject further, but the 

 complete success that crowned his efforts in the treatment 

 of his own stock and that of his neighbors, who pressed him 

 into the service, created a thirst for a general and minute 

 knowledge of all the diseases the horse is heir to, and led 

 him to abandon all other pursuits, and give himself up to 

 study and original investigation, which led to a very wide 

 and highly successful veterinary practice, completely demol- 

 ishing many old theories, and superseding the harsh, cruel, 

 and inhuman modes of treatment generally practiced, by 

 those more effectual, cheaper, simpler, and in every way 



(iii) 



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