There is no period in the history of the United States when our domestic animals have ranked so high as at the present time; yet there is no subject on which there is such a lamentable want of knowledge as the proper treatment of their diseases. Governor Briggs, in a recent letter to the author, says, "You have my thanks, and, in my opinion, are entitled to the thanks of the community, for entering upon this important work. While the subject has engaged the attention of scientific men in other countries, it has been too long neglected in our own. Cruelty and ignorance have marked our treatment to diseased animals. Ignorant himself both of the disease and the remedy, the owner has been in the habit of administering the popular remedy of every neighbor who had no better powers of knowing what should be done than himself, until the poor animal, if the disease would not have proved fatal, is left alone, until death, with a friendly hand, puts a period to his sufferings: he is, however, often destroyed by the amount or destructive character of the remedies, or else by the cruel mode of administering them. I am persuaded that the community will approve of your exertions, and find it to their interest to support and sustain your system." The author has labored for several years to substitute a safer and a more efficient system of medication in the treatment of diseased animals, and at the same time to point out to the American people the great benefits they will derive from the diffusion of veterinary education. That many thousands of our most valuable cattle die under the treatment, which consists of little else than blood-letting, purging, and blistering, no one will deny; and these dangerous and destructive agents are frequently administered by men who are totally unacquainted with the nature of the agents they prescribe. But a better day is dawning; veterinary information is loudly called for--demanded; and the farmers will have it; _but it must be a safer and a more efficient system than that heretofore practised_. The object of the veterinary art is not only congenial with human medicine, but the very same paths that lead to a knowledge of the diseases of man lead also to a knowledge of those of brutes.