12 SPECIAL EQUINE THERAPY 



natural eiSforts on the patients' part, we endeavor to 

 "make or break" all too commonly. We select agents, 

 the action of which is, frequently, too direct. And, 

 again, all too frequently, our remedy, instead of attack- 

 ing the disease, does its heaviest work upon tissues not 

 in the least involved, or else upon tissues and organs al- 

 ready bearing the brunt of the attack. Most of us can 

 remember the old forms of treatment for acute indiges- 

 tion. With a stomach already so full of ingesta and gas 

 that it was nigh unto bursting, and frequently it did 

 burst, we persisted in pouring in dose after dose. Many 

 .--^ times several gallons of oil and other liquids have been 

 added. Today we do just the opposite ; we use a stomach 

 tube and remove the fermenting mass, and deaths from 

 rupture of the stomach following an attack of acute in- 

 digestion are today exceedingly rare. In dozens of other 

 diseases we perform just as unreasonable (if not quite 

 such evident) capers in the line of treatment. Instead 

 of assisting the natural powers of the body (and in our 

 patients these most assuredly deserve recognition), we 

 make it doubly hard for them. 



The reader will note the simplicity of treatments rec- 

 ommended in this volume. Adherence to these principles, 

 and their adaptation to other conditions than those here 

 discussed will prove a revelation to most practitioners 

 who are unfamiliar with them. Every method of treat- 

 ment named in the following pages has been thoroughly 

 tested in actual practice and found reliable. 



No space has been devoted to any other purpose than 

 the expounding of result-getting matter. It is presumed 

 that the reader is fully conversant with the business 

 end of the profession and that no admonition is required 

 upon points relating entirely to the whims of a clientele. 



