Vlll PREFACE. 



Persons who have paid any attention to the rise and progress 

 <of veterinary science in this country, are painfully aware of its 

 great imperfections, and the author's object in preparing this work 

 is to endeavor to lessen and remove them, by giving the reader 

 the benefit of an experience which extends through a period of 

 twenty-five years. 



In view of furnishing reliable information, and of showing how 

 little of medicine is required for the treatment of various forms 

 of disease, a number of cases, recorded in the author's note-book, 

 are introduced in various parts of the work. These cases may, 

 perhaps, also give the unprejudiced reader juster views of the 

 relations of nature and art to diseases ; for it is a notorious fact 

 that very many well-instructed persons of all classes have hith- 

 erto exercised a blind faith in the medical art for the cure of dis- 

 ease, when it is a fact well known to those who practice rational 

 medicine that Nature possesses vastly greater powers than Art in 

 curing diseases. AYhat is here meant by nature, is the conserva- 

 tive power inherent in the living body. For a better understand- 

 ing of this subject, the reader is referred to the works of Sir John 

 Forbes, Oliver W. Holmes, and Professor Bigelow. 



In view of aiding nature in the cure of disease, the author has 

 introduced to the reader's attention a new class of remedies, viz. : 

 Fluid Extracts of a sanative character. They have proved more 

 safe and efficacious in the practice of rational medicine than all 

 the other heroic arms of physic. 



These remedies have been carefully tested for several years by 

 the author, and those students who have, from time to time, placed 

 themselves under his instruction, and the result has been very 

 satisfactory ; otherwise, they would not be recommended in this 

 work. 



Finally, the author feels it due to himself to state that the 

 almost constant occupation of his time, professionally, has given 

 him less opportunity than he desired for the production of this 

 work, yet he entertains a hope that he has not labored in vain ; 

 and thus this mite is cast into the common treasury of Veterinary 

 Science. 



G. H. D. 



