PEEFAOE 



With none of our friends and helpers among tlie lower 

 animals would we part so reluctantly as with the dog. 

 No speechless associate of man has ever so entwined itself 

 around the very roots of our domestic life as the dog; 

 none has won so much admiration, confidence, and affec- 

 tion ; none has appealed to so large a number of mankind 

 of every condition, age, and sex. It will therefore be 

 conceded that so noble, so intelligent, and so faithful an 

 animal as the dog is entitled to the most complete un- 

 derstanding and the best usage of which we are capable. 



The professional treatment of the dog in disease natu- 

 rally falls to the veterinarian ; but inasmuch as this ani 

 mal is very different in his nature from the horse and 

 other herbivora which engage the chief attention of the 

 veterinary profession, it follows that if the dog is to be 

 treated on a rational basis, he must be made a subject of 

 special study by the veterinarian. A knowledge of equine 

 medicine goes but a little way to qualify a man to treat 

 the dog, and the sooner this is recognized by the profes- 

 sion of comparative (veterinary) medicine, the better will it 

 be for both the profession and our canine friends If the 

 veterinarian hopes to largely acquire the confidence of the 



