Preface to the Fourth Edition
This edition is the first to have been prepared without the participation of Wolf Sack who sadly died in 2005. While we have greatly missed the energy, enthusiasm, and commitment that he would have brought to the task of revision, the more painful loss is the friendship that we enjoyed for so many years.
We would like to dedicate this edition to his memory.Turning now to happier matters, the newly acquired license to introduce color to the text pages has provided both the opportunity and the stimulus to review the body of illustrations. Many of the old black-and-white drawings are now presented in fresh form; others have been replaced by photographs of the specimens from which they were prepared. Many photographs formerly banished to distant plates have been brought home to their proper contexts, while various other photographs and images have been supplemented or replaced by more satisfactory examples. We are immensely grateful and indebted to those who made these improvements possible. It has been a particular pleasure to work with Maartje Kunen and Rogier Trompert, the artists who produced the colored versions of the drawings.
We are also grateful to the technical staff of the Veterinary Anatomy Department at Utrecht who prepared the dissections and to Dr. Ben Colenbrander, who generously provided many new illustrations. Dr. G. Voorhout and Dr. A. van der Belt of the Veterinary Radiology Department in Utrecht provided a large number of replacement radiographs for use in the carnivore and horse chapters.
The text has been revised with the twin aims, not always easily reconciled, of reducing the demands made of the student reader while adapting the content to the changing needs of general practice. We have shorn some sections of material probably superfluous to basic requirements. This mainly affected certain chapters of the first part and, in the second part, those devoted to the production animals for which herd medicine now tends to dominate over treatment of the individual.
New material has been introduced into the chapters dealing with the horse, avian anatomy and, most especially, with the companion species. To ensure the relevance of the revision, we invited certain colleagues to review and provide advice on the chapters relating to their special fields of interest. Those who accepted these invitations and provided this much valued assistance are specifically acknowledged on the contributor page.In an age in which up-to-date information is so readily available, it seems unnecessary to continue to burden the text with references to a literature that is evolving so rapidly.
We have now accumulated so many benefactors that it seems almost inevitable that we have failed to give specific acknowledgment everywhere it was due. We hope any we have failed to recognize will forgive our lapse and be assured of our gratitude.
Finally, and certainly not least, we have to thank Dr. Jo Zuketto for assistance, generously offered and eagerly accepted, with computer matters. His arcane skills transformed many illustrations and wondrously combined text and figures, old and new, in a fashion that we could never have achieved without his help. In periods of the ill health of one of the authors, he really helped to keep the process moving and he also kept our spirits up.
K.M. Dyce
C.J.G. Wensingt
The Preface printed above accompanied the completed typescript. Now, only a short time later, it is sadly necessary to record the death of Cees Wensing who died in May 2009 after a long battle with illness fought with inspiring courage. Amongst other innovations Cees had made himself responsible for the comprehensive revision and renewal of the illustrations, and he was eager to see this edition, which so clearly bears his imprint, through to publication.
Even when it had become evident that this was unlikely, he worked on with undiminished determination, and he was busy correcting proofs only a few days before he died. He greatly appreciated the help and support he received from family and friends, and it is testimony to the high regard in which he was held that two of these friends, Jo Zuketto and Ben Colenbrander, whose help had been unstinted while he lived, should have undertaken to continue to assist with correction of the proofs.
His role with this book was only a small part of his achievements, especially as Director of the Research Institute at Lelystad—Central Veterinary Institute, later called ID-Lelystad, now called Animal Science Group. He will be missed greatly.
I now regard this edition as dedicated to the memory of both departed friends and colleagues.
K.M. Dyce tDeceased.