8 INTRODUCTION. 



sooner or later, a more effectual system of medication — a 

 system that will remove the diseases of their animals without 

 submitting them to the excruciating torment of the firing iron, 

 lancet, and the destructive agents that have heretofore been 

 Used for the cure of disease. 



What man of common sense can for a moment suppose, 

 that powerful destructive agents can restore a weak, sinking 

 animal to a healthy state? Many of the means recommend- 

 ed by some works on horse-doctoring, would make a well 

 animal sick, whatever they might do to the one already 

 diseased. We are told that the agents they recommend pro- 

 voke the system to rally her powers, and resist disease ; and, 

 at the same time, these agents, being destructive in their na- 

 ture, produce another, or a secondary disease, and that the 

 primary disease is cured by exciting a secondary one! This 

 is just as absurd as knocking a horse down to make him stand 

 up. But truth and experience are abroad, exerting their in- 

 fluence on the minds of reflecting, honest, and independent 

 men, and the day is not far distant when the lancet and poi- 

 son will be rejected in the treatment of disease in animals. 



As the advocate of veterinary reform, the author has en- 

 deavored to present the subject to the reader in a brief manner, 

 without writing all round, and failing to hit the mark. The 

 object aimed at is the prevention of disease. It is an old but 

 true saying, that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound 

 of cure j " and it is more convenient and less expensive. 



Every farmer throughout the land is furnished by the 

 Creator with ample means for preventing the introduction of 

 disease into the animal organization, and to remove it, in some 

 cases, when it has made its appearance ; thus the man who 

 confines his prescriptions to a few good remedies, the action 

 of which he is well acquainted with, is far more successful 

 than he who is constantly changing his medicines for the 

 popular compounds of the day. 



A knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pathology is 

 important, yet not absolutely necessary, in the cure of disease. 

 The two former are, of course, more important that the latter. 



