PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xi 



been for generations establishing. If by one iota he 

 can add to the knowledge already accumulated, he is a 

 lucky man. 



My plagiarism confessed, I feel no need to publish a 

 list of the literature to which I am indebted. I would, 

 however, particularly like to mention two names : The 

 first, that of William Percivall, whose writings have 

 fallen into an obscurity they certainly do not deserve ; 

 the second, Veterinary-Colonel Fred Smith, from whose 

 works I have very largely drawn, and whose contribu- 

 tions to this and allied subjects have been such as to 

 place the veterinary profession under a deep debt of 

 gratitude. 



I would also mention that the courtesy of Sir John 

 M'Fadyean enables me to reprint from the Journal of 

 Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics an article of my 

 own that now forms the subject-matter of Chapter IX. 

 Professor Macqueen has kindly allowed me to make 

 use of his valuable experiments concerning the opera- 

 tion of laparo-enterotomy, and Mr. E. R. Harding, of 

 Salisbury, has furnished me with his experiences relating 

 to the stimulant treatment of intestinal impaction. 



The attempt in Chapters IX., X., and XI. i to dif- 

 ferentiate varieties of subacute intestinal obstruction 

 may be regarded as the main original portion of this 

 work. For the present, I simply ask for that a careful 

 reading. 



This book, then, carries no pretence to being entirely 

 original. It is a gathering together of observations that 

 other minds have made, with just so much of my own 

 experience as would enable me to weld the loose particles 

 into one presentable whole. I am not without hopes 



1 In this, the second edition, these are now Chapters IX., XI., 

 and XII.— H. C. R. 



