8 PKEFACE. 



have acquired an extensive experience by long-continued, assidu- 

 ous study and the practice of many years. 



Everything related by me in the present work is the result of 

 my own experience and observation. Hardly a single disease is 

 mentioned which I have not observed and treated. The descrip- 

 tions of the diseases, and the directions for their prevention and 

 cure, are therefore based substantially on my own observation. 

 In the few instances where I have departed from this rule, I 

 have availed myself of the experience of others, after subjecting 

 it to a thorough criticism. As I have often been disappointed 

 in life as well as in science, I have become very suspicious and 

 skeptical ; and this accounts for the fact that I have admitted 

 nothing except after a careful investigation and examination; 

 Nothing in this book is the mere product of philosophical 

 reasoning or hypothetical theories, and it contains solely the 

 results of my own observation and experience, and therefore 

 facts. As, however, nothing is perfect, and man is liable to err, 

 I may nevertheless have committed mistakes — it would be absurd 

 to assert the contrary — and for these I ask the indulgence of 

 the public. 



It is unnecessary to dwell long on the object of this book. 

 Let it be understood that it is not my aim to make veterinarians 

 of my readers, for that would be not only a useless and foohsh 

 undertaking, but might also be attended with dangerous con- 

 sequences. I wish, however, to furnish the reader the necessary 

 information to enable him to form an opinion of his own, and to 

 burst the shackles of prejudice, which exists especially in this 

 country, where veterinary science is still in its infancy. A care- 

 ful perusal of these pages will enable him to understand the 

 extent and probable limits of the science — what it can and what 

 it cannot accomplish ; so that he may not be induced by quacks 



