2 5 
ON ANASARCA, &C. 
May you want none of that heartfelt comfort which Englishmen 
know so well how to appreciate, and which so amply compensates 
for the rude revelry and the boisterous mirth which used at this 
festive season to make “roof and rafters ring” in the homes of 
our forefathers ! 
And “a happy new year to you !” gentlemen. May you be 
happy in the enjoyment or the restoration of health; happy in 
your personal prospects ; and, “ last not least,” happy in render¬ 
ing this work (your offspring) more beloved, more interesting, 
and more beneficial to the profession! I am much pleased to 
see, that though you have not entered the name of the “ Sweet 
bard of Avon” in your list of Collaborateurs, yet we have a con¬ 
tribution from him in the body of the work. I am sure your 
hunting correspondent has very happily hit the taste of a great 
number of your readers by this selection. And do you not 
think, gentlemen, that he and many others (who are so far for¬ 
tune’s favourites as to be fixed in situations where a frequent 
breathing across the country, listening to the wild melody of the 
pack, so far from being a hinderance is, peradventure, a further¬ 
ance of their professional avocations) might occasionally favour 
us with cases, opinions, &c., resulting peculiarly from the study 
(in the stable and in the field) of that most noble of all our pa¬ 
tients, the “ fleet-footed hunter?” 
I know not how far you may be satisfied with a retrospect of 
this work for the past year. Of one thing I am certain, that 
your contributors can have no possible chance of finding fault, 
as it rests with them to modify its contents ; and this ought to be 
the general feeling amongst us, that if The Veterinarian 
does not contain all that is bright and alluring, as well as all that 
is sterling and beneficial in veterinary science, it is the fault of 
those who are capable of rendering it so, and not of the impar¬ 
tial editors. 
I recollect having once heard a song that began and continued 
by stating all that it was not about, and ending by saying, that 
it was about long enough ; and, lest this should be your fiat 
on my paper, I proceed to offer a few remarks on Anasarca. 
By this I do not mean simply that debility of the vascular 
system producing trifling oedematous swellings, the sequel of 
some inflammatory attack, but anasarca existing as a primary 
disease; and that state of it which has at times, under the name 
of feltric, committed such extensive ravages amongst young 
horses in the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. 
This is a disease in which it is highly necessary to study the 
predisposing causes before proposing curative measures; as, 
without the strictest attention to remedy these, it would be found 
VOL. VII. D 
