PREFACE. v 
and cluse application. It is only the property of the industrious 
and devoted student. 
In order to acquire the necessary tact, skill, and experience for 
the practice of our art, some of the shining lights—the carly dis- 
ciples—have spent the May-day of their existence in solving its 
problems, and, when near its close, have declared, with a modesty 
indicative of true genius, that their education was yet incomplete. 
Such testimony goes to show that there is no republican nor 
royal road to yeterinary knowledge. In fact, after a man has 
perseveringly pursued the routine studies of the most popular col- 
legiate institutions, he may still be found “ wanting.” 
Let us contemplate for a moment the superior advantages which 
human practitioners have over our craftsmen, both as regards 
their scientific qualifications and the superior means at their com- 
mand for ascertaining the character, location, and intensity of the 
various maladies peculiar to the human race. For example, the 
practitioner of human medicine, if he has been a faithful and in- 
dustrious student, enters upon the active duties of his profession, 
having acquired a valuable fund of knowledge of anatomy, phys- 
inlogy, pathology, and other necessary branches of study ; and, 
having disciplined his mind in the regular school, and in that of 
experience, he is expected to be able to rejoice in the possession of 
a well-trained mind, which enables him to understand and inter- 
pret the physiological laws which preserve health and life in the 
constitution of organized beings; also to comprehend the why and 
wherefore of disease; to be able to institute sanitary and other reg- 
ulations, and to select suitable medicinal preparations, in view of 
necting the various indications of each and every form of disease. 
And when a man becomes the subject of sickness, and the doctor 
is called upon to exercise his skill, the latter receives valuable aid, 
in view of making a correct diagnosis, from the patient and his 
friends. Each can be questioned, and their responses throw con- 
siderable light on the history and nature of the malady. Now, 
as regards the latter advantages, they have no parallel with the 
men of our craft. Our patients are deprived of the power of 
speech, and we can only judge of the state of their health, and 
the nature of’ their maladies, by signs revealed or elicited through 
physical exploration. We have other difficulties to encounter of 
no less magnitude. For example, our patients are often located 
in situations unfit for a well animal to reside in, and they do not 
