PREFACE. 



This work is especially designed to sxipply the need of the 

 busy American farmer who can rarely avail himself of the 

 advice of a scientific veterinarian. The author is deeply sen- 

 sible of the low estimate placed upon Veterinary Medicuie 

 and Surgery in the United States, and the necessity of 

 educating the public up to a better appreciation of its 

 value. We have a property in live stock estimated at 

 $1,500,000,000, and rapidly increasing in value, consisting 

 of at least six different genera of mammals, besides birds, 

 and therefore affording an almost unlimited field for the 

 practical exercise of humanity, political economy, and scien- 

 tific research in the pursuit of Yeterinary Medicine. In 

 the Old World millions are saved yearly to each of the 

 Western European Nations in the exclusion and extinction 

 of animal plagues, and many instances can be adduced of 

 an intelligent veterinary supervision saving at the rate of 

 $30,000 per annum on a stud of 400 horses. But in the 

 Western Hemisphere, apart from the larger cities, the great 

 pecuniary interest in live stock is largely at the mercy 

 of ignorant pretenders, whose barbarous surgery is only 

 equaled by their reckless and destructive drugging. The 

 constantly recurring instances of absolute and painful poi- 



