PREFACE. 



In lecturing in the Vetei'iliary Department of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania the author has found it a serious disad- 

 vantage that the students are compelled to rely solely on 

 the notes that they may be able to take during the lectures. 

 While French students have access to the encyclopaedic work 

 of Colin, and those familiar with the German language to the 

 admirable works of Schmidt-Miilheim, Bruckmiiller, Munk, 

 Ellenberger, Ghirlt, Thanhoffer, Muller, and others, English- 

 speaking students have absolutely no work to which they 

 can turn to obtain any application of the laws of physiology 

 to the functions of the domestic animals. Commenced 

 originally as outline notes for the author's own use in 

 lecturing, this work has been published at the request of his 

 students, in the hope that it may supply them with an 

 exponent of the laws of modern physiology applied, as far 

 as possible, to the functions of the domestic animals, and 

 that a recognition of its shortcomings may stimulate inves- 

 tigation of this much-neglected branch of physiology. 



It is surprising, in view of the ceaseless activity of 

 physiological students throughout all the world, that more 

 attention has not been devoted to the application of improved 

 methods of research to the study of the functions of animals 

 so important in the domestic economy. Unfortunately, 

 investigators in this domain may almost be counted on the 

 fingers, and the field which is yet untouched is almost 

 unbounded. The author, therefore, has been compelled to 

 assume that in many cases the laws of the physiology of 

 man, which, to be sure, have been deduced from experiments 



(v) 



