Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/750

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��Popular Science Monthly

��could get more work out of their animals they were only too glad to cooperate in every way with the agents of the Society.

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��The cat miscalculated the speed of an automo- bile. He almost got out of the way, but a paw and his tail didn't

According to the figures published by the Department of Agriculture there

are about one

hundred and ninety ono mil- lion domestic animals in the United States and they are worth, roughly, six billion dol- lars. Is it any wonder that science has be- come interested in animals. There ■ are ap- proximately twenty-one mil- lion horses in thecountry, rep- resenting an in- vestment of two billion, three hundred million dollars. The de- spised mule may not be so de- spised when you

��consider that he represents five hundred and sixty million dollars of our total wealth and that his kind numbers about four million five hundred thousand.

Purely as a question of national economy veterinary science should be encouraged.

The successful veterinary must be, first of all, a good diagnostician; for his patients cannot help him by describing their symptoms. On the other hand, they cannot mislead him by withholding the truth, as human patients are prone to do. Another essential is a natural sympathy for animals. This is par- ticularly necessary; unless the doctor can gain the confidence of his animal-patient it is exceedingly difficult for him to obtain satisfactory results.

Animals are subject to many of the diseases that afilict human beings, and besides these they suffer from a number peculiar to their own species. Horses are liable to pneumonia and unless very carefully treated the disease is likely to prove fatal. One of the most serious ills to which horses are subject is known as "azoturia," meaning to the lay owner and driver spinal trouble. The horse more likely to suffer from this

���The horse sustained injuries to both fore legs. A few years ago he would have had to be killed, but now, thanks to this very modern method of treating animals, he will be as good as ever in a month's time. The use of a local anaesthetic prevents the horse from feeling any pain during the operation

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