2 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 
obtains so conspicuously in the sister profession, we 
should have had a hundred workers in the field, each 
with his book, and that book containing the same 
matter, in, another form, of every other book on the 
same subject, embodying the one idea—too often 
forced—which has acted as the excuse for its author. 
Without further comment we will, if you please, take 
a general view of the ground we propose going over, 
and then enter into particulars; the importance of 
which must be ever present before you, in order that 
what may seem to you trivial and of little importance 
may not be overlooked or passed by lightly. 
You will be called upon frequently in your pro- 
fessional career to decide, not upon the particular 
ailment, its causes, effects, and probable termination, 
from which an animal may be suffering; but upon 
the far weightier question, in many cases, as to whether 
the horse is or is not in sound health in wind and 
limb, and if not, as to how far he is unsound, and 
how far the unsoundness is likely to interfere with 
those duties which are to be expected of him. So 
that you see there is this difference in the latter 
case as compared with the former, you have a patient 
which is likely to live, and be a living testimony to 
the truth or error of your prognosis. But this is not 
all: your mistakes, if any, will too often be set down 
for something worse, and your actions will not seldom 
be interpreted as dishonesties. Such, then, being the 
importance of the duties you will have to perform 
