PREFACE. 



IN undertaking this work, the authoi was influenced by an anxious 

 desire to extend the views of medical science generally, and of hia 

 own profession in particular, and a wish to draw the attention of 

 agriculturists and veterinary surgeons to a too much neglected and 

 undervalued class of animals, and by the hope of materially increas 

 ing the amount of knowledge already possessed. 



It has been his task to collect all the various brief and cursory 

 notices which have been accorded to swine by ancient as well as 

 modern agricultural and medical writers ; to select those which were 

 valuable and worthy of record ; and then, by weaving them into the 

 groundwork of his own ideas and experience, to bring the before 

 scattered rays into one focus, so that the eye of science may be 

 attracted towards this hitherto neglected branch, and, from con- 

 templating, may be led to study it ; and practical men may be 

 induced to aid, by their experience, in elucidating a subject which 

 is as yet so little understood. 



In short, he has endeavored to act as a pioneer, to lead the way 

 to, and break up, a new and fertile spot ; one that will amply re- 

 ward the labors of those whom he hopes to induce by his example 

 to bestow some little of their care upon it. 



Many talented and valued friends have kindly assisted him by 

 hints and information ; to them he tenders his sincere thanks. Should 

 it be deemed that he has succeeded in throwing some portion of 

 light, faint though it may be, on the management and diseases of 

 animals whose value is becoming more and more acknowledged 

 every year, he will consider his labors amply rewarded. 



WILLIAM YOUA.TT. 



