A manual of veterinary physiology / by Major-General F. Smith.

  • Smith, F. (Frederick), Sir, 1857-1929.
Date:
[1920], ©1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of veterinary physiology / by Major-General F. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/920
    PREFACE TO FIFTH EDITION This book was due for revision in 1914, but the outbreak of War and my recall to military service prevented its being taken in hand; to meet the demand, two small editions were successively reprinted. As the War continued, it was decided either that the work must remain out of print or the text be brought up to date by another hand. Dr.T. H. Milroy, Professor of Physiology in the Queen’s University of Belfast, very kindly undertook the revision of that portion of the book dealing with general physiology. My thanks are due to him for his help rendered at great personal inconvenience in the midst of his own exacting duties. The first five chapters were in the press when my release from Military Service in the autumn of 1919, rendered it possible for me to undertake revision on a broader basis than was originally intended. Several chapters have accordingly been recast or entirely rewritten. I have been taken to task for calling this work a Veterinary Physiology, but the title was not chosen without due considera¬ tion. It is not a comparative physiology, but a work intended for veterinary students and practitioners. Throughout its pages an attempt has been made to show the bearing of physiology on the practice of veterinary medicine, surgery, and hygiene.* The chapter on Generation and Development is long, but I make no apology for this; the subject is of extraordinary interest to the veterinarian. The breeding of animals is not hampered by social laws and that neglect of heredity which in human beings leads so largely to the multiplication of the unfit. * It is the great regret of my life that with unrivalled facilities for clinically studying two big groups of diseases affecting horses—namely, those of the Digestive and Locomotor systems—I have been able to add so little to the common stock of knowledge. Ignorance of the diseases of animals will remain until those forces capable of overcoming pathological secrets combine to attack the question. The clinician, pathologist, physiologist, biochemist, biologist, and entomologist are all in a greater or less degree concerned; in the future, laboratory team work must play a far larger part if progress is to be made.