PREFACE TO AMERICAN EDITION 



The work of translating and preparing for publication the 

 following edition of Kitt's General Pathology has been a pleasure, 

 because of the real value of the work and because both editor and 

 translator have believed the labor a service to the profession. As 

 Professor Kitt states in the preface to the German edition, it is 

 practically the only work devoted to a discussion of general 

 pathology from the standpoint of the veterinarian ; and the need 

 of such a work has long been manifest to every teacher of pathol- 

 ogy in charge of students of veterinary medicine. The impres- 

 sions given by any book upon pathology, even the best, which has 

 been framed primarily for use in connection with human medicine, 

 are often unfortunate from the inaptness of the descriptions of 

 lesions for the needs of men studying comparative medicine. It is 

 undoubtedly true that the general processes of disease are funda- 

 mentally the same in whatever subject they occur; but the 

 varieties of appearances of one and the same type of lesion in 

 different species may well be sufficiently marked to make the 

 descriptions based upon the changes met in any given animal 

 confusing and perhaps inadequate for students, whose experience 

 in the earlier years is anything but extensive. The differences, 

 for example, in the appearances of a tuberculous caseated area in 

 man, in the cow, hog, horse, or in carnivora, well illustrate the 

 point in mind; or the differences in bulk and in other character- 

 istics of various tumors as met in man and in the large domestic 

 animals serve as an example. The adaptation of the present 

 volume to the needs of students who, as Professor Kitt points 

 out, have had to accept, as a rule, the descriptions of lesions as 

 seen in man and then amend them by notes from lectures, has 

 strongly appealed to us as instructors of veterinary students, and 

 will find, w.e believe, an equal appreciation from others whose 

 work has fallen in similar lines. 



The book reflects well the tendency of modern pathological 



