PREFACE OF THE EDITOR.

The Editor, having been called upon by the American publishers of the
present volume to see it through the press, and add such matter as he
deemed likely to increase its value to the sportsman and the lover of
dogs in this country, the more readily consented to undertake the task,
as he had previously, during the intervals of leisure left by
professional avocations, paid much attention to the diseases, breeding,
rearing, and peculiarities of the canine race, with a view to the
preparation of a volume on the subject.

His design, however, being in a great measure superseded by the enlarged
and valuable treatise of Mr. Youatt, whose name is a full guarantee as
to the value of whatever he may give to the world, he found that not
much remained to be added. Such points, however, as he thought might be
improved, and such matter as appeared necessary to adapt the volume more
especially to the wants of this country, he has introduced in the course
of its pages. These additions, amounting to about sixty pages, will be
found between brackets, with the initial of the Editor appended. He
trusts they will not detract from the interest of the volume, while he
hopes that its usefulness may be thereby somewhat increased.

With this explanation of his connexion with the work, he leaves it in
the hope that it may prove of value to the sportsman from its immediate
relation to his stirring pursuits; to the general reader, from the large
amount of curious information collected in its pages, which is almost
inaccessible in any other form; and to the medical student, from the
light it sheds on the pathology and diseases of the dog, by which he