CHAPTER VI 



INDICATIONS OF DISEASE IN ANIMALS 



Modern veterinary medicine follows human medi- 

 cine very closely, both in theory and practice, and the 

 same methods of treatment are used in disease, except 

 when the structure of the animal or other circum- 

 stances require a special modification. The days of 

 bleeding, of violent purging, of large doses of vile 

 drugs have passed, and with them have disappeared 

 many mythical diseases, which were once a source of fear 

 to stock -owners. Disease is no longer the mysterious 

 visitation of Providence that it was then considered to be. 

 Its causes are definite and in most cases well known. 

 In those diseases whose cause is still unknown the 

 fearful mystery of other days has disappeared under 

 the scrutiny of definite scientific research. 



The body of an animal is constructed upon the same 

 general plan as the human body. It is well known 

 that the differences between man and the animals is 

 not so largely physical as mental. There is the same 

 bony framework, with joints between the bones to give 

 mobility, the bones being held together by strong bands 

 of white fibrous connective tissue, called ligaments. 

 Covering the bones and forming a large part of the 

 body is the great mass of muscular tissue (lean meat), 

 whose function is not only to move the various parts 



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