Preface 



This little volume appears because of the need for 

 the material which it contains in a readily accessible 

 form. An examination of the articles in this work will 

 convince anyone that they are too important, too valu- 

 able to the practitioner and too much needed by most 

 of us to remain in the more or less inaccessible files of 

 any periodical. Therefore, the customary apology for 

 the issuance of a publication, that usually begins its 

 preface, is wholly unnecessary here. 



Many veterinarians apologize for the use of the word 

 "colic" and deplore its introduction into the nomen- 

 clature of diseases. But such a view seems hardly jus- 

 tified. It appears best to recognize that the meaning 

 of this term has traveled far beyond its logical, etymo- 

 logical restrictions and has come to include a great, 

 though definite, group of ailments, which bear some 

 degree of relation to one another in cause and in efTect. 

 Various substitutes for the word colic have been sug- 

 gested by writers on veterinary medicine but as yet none 

 of the terms offered is so comprehensive and at the sam.e 

 time so exclusive — none includes all of the ailments which 

 it is desirable to place in this class, and at the same time 

 omits those that do not properly belong in it. There- 

 fore, "Colics" is selected as the most significant title 

 available for this work. 



May, 1914. The Editor. 



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