X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



periodicals. Reported matter I found in abundance, but 

 it required to be drawn up and put into a convenient 

 space for easy digestion. 



What I so pressingly needed myself, I judged others 

 would need also. Consequently, though the work might 

 well have been left to far abler hands than my own, I 

 resolved to record the result of my readings and investi- 

 gations, tempered with what experience I possessed my- 

 self, in the form this little book presents. 



My first intentions as to the scope of this work were 

 ambitious, and I commenced it under the title of ' The 

 Equine Colics.' This I found was far too embracing, 

 for it would have led me into a consideration and de- 

 scription of ailments that have been ably dealt with 

 elsewhere — e.g., the colic of hernia, the colic due to 

 parasites, etc. 



Finally, the title that now heads the book was selected. 

 It will limit me to a consideration of those disorders with 

 which I feel myself competent to deal. 



Regarding the imperfections the book contains, they 

 can be apparent to no one more than the author. The 

 very failings of a work, however, will often set going a 

 wheel of discussion and thought that no amount of fore- 

 sight could otherwise initiate. That being so, I am 

 content to leave it. 



Lastly, I am to confess the source whence I gained 

 my materials. That duty is easy. I have not scrupled 

 to avail myself to the uttermost of anything I have 

 heard or read. The man who sits himself down to write 

 an original work, unless it be one of fiction, is handi- 

 capped at the very outset. The knowledge he is already 

 possessed of he largely owes to former brains and other 

 people's experiences. In medicine he is bound to pro- 

 visionally accept what greater minds than his own have 



