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PEEFACE 



TO 



THE SEVENTEENTH EDITION. 



Sixteen editions of this work have, it is liojied, sufficiently 

 stamped it as a favourite of the public. In undertaking the 

 seventeenth, with which he has been entrusted by the proprietors, 

 the Editor feels that he can best carry out the wishes of the 

 late respected Author by endeavouring to effect what improve- 

 ments in it he is capable of doing, and such as the advanced 

 and advancing state of the science on which it treats appears 

 to demand. 



It will be seen that the work, which has hitherto been pub- 

 lished in three volumes, is now embodied in one. In accom- 

 plishing this, considerable alterations were necessarily required. 

 Much superfluous matter has been removed ; and in arranging 

 the work more systematically, it has been in many instances 

 found necessary to re-write subjects entirely, as the more con- 

 venient method of incorporating the Autlioi*'s ideas with the 

 desired improvements. Besides this, many articles altogether 

 new have been supplied, which it is hoped will add both to the 

 interest and value of the work. 



The engravings, fifty-six in number, by ]Mr. Branston, are 

 entirely new, and most of them are on new subjects. 



In effecting these alterations and intended impx-ovements, the 

 original plan has yet been preserved ; for although the work 

 has been much extended, it still gives a general and popular 

 outline of the structure of the horse, and a compendium of the 

 diseases to which he is liable. 



In former Prefaces the Author has reviewed in some measure 

 the productions of our authors in this country, as well as on 

 the Continent. Veterinary works being now however too 

 numerous to pei'mit us to follow out this plan to the same ex- 

 tent, a glance at them must suffice. 



France has furnished a considerable addition to our veterinary 

 literature. Messrs. Girard, both father and son, have pro- 

 duced woi'ks of considerable eminence. Professors Bigot and 

 Delafond have also by their writings established their claims as 

 men of considerable scientific and veterinary acquirements. The 

 Dictionary of Hurtrel d'Arboval, extending to four volumes, 



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