6 THE STOCK owner's ADVISER. 



scientific system not less regnlar than tliat of similar establish- 

 ments devoted to the relief of suffering humanity. To these 

 hospitals thousands of sick animals are annually sent and receive 

 eveiy attention. Medicines are administered with the ntmost 

 care, either as assnagers of temporary pain or as remedial agents 

 in the cnre of disease. Operations the most complex are per- 

 formed with the greatest skill, and every attention is bestowed 

 npon these invalids in their different wards. 



While this is tme of the cities, yet vast agricultural districts, 

 the sources from which our best stock come, are not only remote 

 from these institutions, but are unable to procure professional 

 aid. It is to my customers throughout the rural districts of the 

 Eastern States, who have solicited my professional ser\dces, that 

 I dedicate this work. I have herein given the fruits of my expe- 

 rience in practice, which, while chiefly in the great stock-raising 

 regions of Virginia and AVest A'irginia, extends from the pro- 

 vince of Ontario to the Carolinas of our great Southland. 



It behooves every lover of animals, who cannot readily procure 

 professional aid, to make himself familiar with the nature and 

 treatment of the most prominent affections of these companions 

 of our sports and servants of labor, and at the same time acquire 

 a knowledge of the oi^erations of certain medicines upon the 

 system. 



I have endeavored to express myself plainly on all topics, 

 endeavoring to simplify the work and render it a practical guide 

 to the stock owner. This volume presents many new suggestions 

 in hygiene, the management of disease, and development and 

 improvement of animals, and the conclusions represent the re- 

 sults of the latest investigations by the world's most distin- 

 guished savants. 



The plan of this work is to attempt to sift the true from the 

 false, to reconcile seeming differences, to point out wliat we 

 know in the fewest possible words, and to lay a foundation from 

 which investigators may start forward with some knowledge of 

 what has already been achieved, without spending a great deal 



