VETERINARY TOPICS OF TO-DAY. 
745 
movements of armies cannot be accomplished without the aid 
of the horse. With the object of strengthening their transport 
and cavalry service, the nations of the world at the present time 
are straining every nerve to acquire large numbers of suitable 
horses for this purpose. So enormous has this demand been 
during the past two years, that the price of horses has fully 
doubled in value. 
In the field of veterinary literature during the past year there 
have appeared several valuable books and monographs, some of 
these being of much value to the busy practitioner. Among 
the more valuable of these may be mentioned the u Fifteenth An¬ 
nual Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry.” This volume 
is replete with a vast amount of information, and should find a 
place on the book-shelf of every veterinarian. An excellent 
monograph on the diseases of poultry, from the versatile pen of 
Dr. D. E. Salmon, contains a fund of information upon a hith¬ 
erto neglected branch of our science. The second part of Vol. 
I. of that excellent work, entitled u A Treatise on Surgical 
Therapeutics of Domestic Animals,” by Profs. Cadiot and Al- 
may, translated by Prof. A. Eiautard, has lately been issued. It 
is filled with a vast amount of the latest information on the best 
methods of performing the routine surgical manipulations met 
with in practice. A work just off the press is a small brochure 
entitled “ A Course in Surgical Operations.” It is translated 
from the German of Dr. Pfeiffer by Dr. W. L. Williams. While 
many of the operations recommended in this work are a decided 
innovation in American veterinary surgery, the value of several, 
from a practical point of view, may be questioned. There is a 
vast amount of difference in point of utility and also from a 
financial standpoint in performing an experimental operation 
upon a worthless animal in the surgical clinic of a veterinary 
school, and that performed upon a valuable animal in private 
practice. In the former, if failure marks the operation, no 
harm is done ; whereas in the latter, failure often means long and 
expensive litigation, and perhaps the ruin of a bright profes¬ 
sional career besides. It might be worth while, therefore, that 
