84 
A. LIAUTAKD. 
each of us as simple individuals, toward our colleagues and toward 
our profession and its noble calling, to make a written record of 
the result of our observations, that we may thereby make our¬ 
selves live for ever—so to speak ? By doing so we help our 
brethren in the profession in the performance of their duties, 
and by it we build up the most perfect and solid edifice of path¬ 
ological animal science. 
If these remark are proper, gentlemen, I hope you will 
grant me a little more of your attention in suggesting briefly the 
rules which I believe ought to be observed in the redaction of 
clinical observations. 
The writing of reports constitutes the minute-history of 
diseases. They are documents that ought to be specially correct, 
and gathered in a regular manner, and I might say always with 
the same method, to allow ulterior researches. The report of a 
case might be divided into five sections, viz: the description of 
the patient; the history of the case; his condition when called 
to attend to him; including the diagnosis, the prognosis, the 
treatment, the result, and his cause of death through the post¬ 
mortem. 
The description of the patient we believe ought to be as 
complete as possible. The color, sex, age, breed, aptitude to spe¬ 
cial work and general constitution, are all more or less important 
points; some affections being more common in various animals, 
and almost specific to them, more than in others, and this is in 
many instances due to the very peculiarities mentioned in that 
description. If, for instance, stallions are more commonly 
affected with hernia, young animals are more subject to peculiar 
forms of infectious diseases than old ones; light-colored animals 
suffer more with pigmentary affections than dark ones; lym¬ 
phatic animals are more liable to blood diseases than nervous in¬ 
dividuals; saddle horses will be exposed to bruises which are 
seldom met with in heavy draught animals, and weak, debilitated 
animals will be more exposed to diseases in general than strong 
and robust ones. 
The history of the patient, or the “ commemoratives ” is of 
the greatest importance, and yet it is not always fully appreciated 
by veterinarians. How many times have we witnessed an attempt 
