PREFACE 



The practice of the Veterinary Art was carried on, during the 

 eighteenth century, mostly by quacks and uneducated persons. It 

 has, however, within the hist sixty years, advanced to the rank of a 

 science, hand in hand with other branches of human knowledge. 



Devastating disorders among animals became the impulse to a 

 more exact study and treatment of the same, and the consequent ad- 

 vance from empiric to scientific knowledge. The veterinary schools 

 founded by the governments of Europe pursued the subject of the 

 education of veterinarians, at first, under the guidance of accom- 

 plished physicians and celebrated horse-doctors, who conjointly 

 taught and presided ; this was the stejDping-stone from guess-work 

 to exact knowledge. Persistent exertions, comparisons between 

 human and animal physics, exact study of anatomy, physiology, &c., 

 finally brought veterinary science to its present position. 



The present work is intended as a guide for owners of horses, to 

 enable them, in the absence of a veterinarian, to undertake the allevi- 

 ation of the sufiering of the sick horse, or its complete cure. A great 

 many books have been written on this subject, but they are mostly 

 large, costly Avorks, fi-equently tiresome, and unintelligible to the un- 

 professional reader. 



The object of the present undertaking is a wish to produce, in an 

 economical and intelligible manner, what may prove a welcome guide 

 to all those interested in horses. 



