PREFATORY. 



»♦» 



The publication of this work has arisen out of the expression 

 of a want on the part of my pupils for a remembrancer, or 

 guide, in the application of the principles and practice of the 

 treatment I have adopted and recommend for the adoption 

 of others, as the most rational, and the most successful of any 

 that I am acquainted with, or even heard of. 



The' first intention was to limit its issue to my pupils who 

 had been fully instructed in the theory and practice of the 

 views it embodies. A fuller consideration, however, of the 

 benefits that would accrue to society, aye, to the world at large, 

 in the diminished sufferings, a fuller utilization, and in the 

 enhanced pleasure and profit arising from the employment of 

 one of the most useful of the domestic animals, namely, the 

 horse, has determined the writer to give a wider dissemination to 

 his views and methods of treatment for the diseases incidental to 

 the foot of that animal ; to devote his entire energies to the work 

 of personal instruction which he has begun, and by rescuing 

 those operations from the domain of empiricism and selfish 

 secrecy, to give them their legitimate place in the category of 

 useful medical appliances. 



It is a fact but too patent to the observation of every think- 

 ing person having any interest of humane sentiment, pleasure, 

 or pecuniary profit in the well-being of the horse, that the foot- 

 diseases of this animal are out of all reasonable proportion, in 

 excess of those affecting him in other respects, and that the 

 foot of the horse and its diseases, notwithstanding the numer- 

 ous ponderous volumes that have appeared from time to time 

 since the establishment of the Royal Veterinary College of Lon- 

 don, England, over three-quarters of a century since, is still the 

 least understood, and the best, or worst abused organ of the 

 whole animal economy. 



