IT INTRODUCTOar. 



The following abridgment is intended to obviate the 

 above objections. "While it is believed, that every thought 

 nr fact in the original, of any importance to the general 

 reader, is preserved entire, much that tended to swell un- 

 necessarily the limits of the work for such a reader, has 

 been omitted. The omissions have been merely anec- 

 dotes, historical narrations, accounts of particular cases, 

 and, in some instances, the less necessary parts of thos» 

 long anatomical descriptions which could be understood 

 only by the surgeon. The symptoms and remedies of dis- 

 eases — all that tends to the full understanding of the 

 horse and his ailments, is given entire, and almost invari- 

 ably in the precise language of Mr. Youatt. The aim 

 of this work has not been to re- write Youatt, — but simply 

 to strike out what is superfluous in him. 



The second circumstance prejudicial to a wide, popular 

 circulation of Mr. Youatt's work, has been, according to 

 fhe common phrase, the "learnedness of its language." 

 The work, as again and again avowed in it, was not so 

 much written to instruct the horse-owner or breeder, as 

 the veterinary surgeon — at least in relation to important 

 diseases, operations, &c. Mr. Youatt is therefore often 

 at little pains to make himself intelligible to uninstructed 

 readers. His language is always learned — frequently 

 highly technical. So far as it could be conveniently and 

 properly done, an attempt has been made in the following 

 pages, to translate his language into that better adapted 

 to ordinary comprehension. A common word is often 

 substituted for the more learned one of Mr. Youatt, or an 

 <3xplanatory one put after it in brackets. The former is 

 all the liberty taken in this way with the text, — and 

 r.his is only done where the meaning could be accurately 

 preserved. 



But every thinking man will readily see from the very 

 nature of the subject, that the improvement to be made 

 on the text in the above particulars is limited. When 

 speaking of anatomical details, diseases, particular pro- 

 cesses, &c., no language is fixed and definite but that of 

 science. And it frequently obviates the necessity of very 

 tedious and often repeated circumlocution. Take for ex- 

 ample the word " auscultation,''^ which signifies distj" 



