xviii INTRODUCTION. 



under restraint, and proved in consequence to be practically worth- 

 less, frequently in the short period of less than an hour, could hot 

 but be accepted as a startling innovation to therflj but, if possible, 

 of more interest from the fact that these results were brought about 

 by clear, well-defined principles of treatment, so plain, simple, and 

 practical as to be easily understood and applied, and within the 

 ability of any ordinary person to master and use. 



These principles I was compelled to teach as a secret, for which 

 I charged a fee of from five to ten dollars ; which instructions were 

 necessarily limited to a few hours, and to a few representative 

 citizens in each neighborhood that I visited ; and though I pub- 

 lished a small work, which was included in the instructions, it was 

 of necessity so written as not to impart these secrets, and would 

 give no idea whatever of my methods and principles of treatment 

 to persons who had not attended my lectures, 



Though possessed, when young, of a remarkably strong consti- 

 tution, the constant struggle and excitement forced upon me in so 

 difficult a field for so many years, gradually undermined and im- 

 paired my health, until, in the early winter of 18^8, I finally broke 

 down so seriously as to be compelled to leave the road. ' 



I now concluded to carry out at my leisure the purpose which 

 had for some time been developing in my mind, — that of writing out 

 the full details of my system, including such knowledge as I be- 

 lieved to be most valuable to horse owners, and that would bring it 

 within the reach of people generally. I at first intended to make a 

 work of only about three hundred pages, which would embody 

 merely the simple outlines I gave to classes, with some additions to 

 the treatment for sickness and lameness which I had already given 

 in my old book. But after writing it up and preparing the illustra- 

 tions I supposed necessary, I could see so much that should be 

 added, that I was induced to re-write the whole matter, bringing it 

 up to about six hundred pages, with about three hundred and fifty 

 illustrations. When this was completed, I again found it necessary 

 to make still more additions, until it grew upon my hands to the 

 present size and number of illustrations of my regular boqk on this 

 subject. With the enlargement of the work grew also upon me the 

 desire to make the departments of Shoeing, Sickness, and Lame- 

 ness equally satisfactory. With this object I made a special effort 

 to secure the best veterinary skill I could command ; but in this I en- 

 tirely failed, until fortunate in arresting the attention of Dr. James 

 HAMILL, D. V. S., of New York City, formerly Professor of Patho- 

 logical Shoeing in the Columbia Veterinary College, whom I found 

 to have attended my lectures in that city in the winter of 1872, and 



