DESCRIPTIONS OF DISEASE. 207 



are professedly systematic treatises, one meets with such a 

 long array of maladies, such a host of symptoms, and such 

 a variety of " complications," that he is at first surprised, 

 when an actual case of the disease presents itself, that not 

 a quarter, perhaps, of the symptoms enumerated are really 

 present, while the complications are likely enough wholly 

 absent. 



Further, with increasing experience, it is found that in 

 ordinary practice, either as a breeder or practitioner of 

 canine medicine, not a few of the diseases so fully de- 

 scribed are scarcely met at all. While it is desirable that 

 the expert shall know all the possibilities, it is only just 

 to the learner, whoever he may be, to point out that some 

 of the departures from health described in books are 

 merely pathological curiosities. And it is especially ne- 

 cessary to warn the beginner not to expect to find all the 

 symptoms that may be enumerated actually present in any 

 one case, or in any score of cases. But it is most impor- 

 tant that the reader grasp the general character^ the type^ 

 the fades of the disease under consideration — that com- 

 bination of phenomena, whatever we term it, which will 

 enable him to understand in a general way what is going 

 on within the body of the animal whenever such a dis- 

 turbance exists as is denominated the disease in question. 

 After that each case must be studied on its merits. It 

 will be clear that there is always room for the exercise of 

 the greatest judgment in diagnosis, prognosis, and treat- 

 ment. 



The weakness of patent remedies in the light of such 

 considerations must be plain. There can, in the very 

 nature of the case, be, as a rule, no panaceas, no remedies 



