PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION. 



The experience I had as an owner, trainer and rider many 

 years ago in India, impressed on me so strongly the neces- 

 sity of acquiring veterinary knowledge, that when I obtained 

 a year's furlough in 1876, I returned to England and spent 

 my military holidays at the New Veterinary College, Edin- 

 burgh. At the end of this first year's veterinary course, I 

 found that I had made so many notes which would be 

 useful to horse-owners in general, as well as to myself, that 

 I collected them into book form, and had them published 

 under the title of " Veterinary Notes for Horse-owners." 

 Three years later, I was fortunate to get another year's fur- 

 lough, which I also spent among my former friends and 

 instructors. My studies were greatly facilitated by the 

 generous and valuable help of the late Professor Williams, 

 Professor A. Johnston and other teachers, whose patience 

 I sorely tried by continual questions as to the " why " and 

 " wherefore " of the veterinary treatment of horses. 



As the first edition of the *' Notes " had sold out before 

 the end of my second year's veterinary course, I was able 

 to add a great deal of useful new matter to the second 

 edition, which received increased appreciation from the 

 public. I brought out the third edition after I had obtained 

 the diploma of the R.C.V.S. and had retired from the Army. 

 Since those ancient times, I have continued to treat this work 

 as a horse-owner's note-book, in which I have recorded all the 

 useful veterinary information I have been able to obtain 

 about horses, from personal experience, friends and books. 



