23S Letter from L)r. Thornton 



that had occasion to cross it. And when the bloodhound 

 came to the chief market-town he passed through the streets' 

 without taking notice of any of the people there, and left 

 not till he had gone to the house, where the man he sought 

 rested himself, and found him in an upper room, to the 

 wonder of those that followed him." — >Boyle determ. Nat* 

 of Effliw. c. 4." 



That most accurate observer of nature, Linn sens, has re- 

 marked "that the cow eats 276 species of plants, and rejects 

 £18; the goat eats 449, and rejects 126; the sheep eats- 

 387, and rejects 141 ; the horse cats 262, and rejects '21 2 ; 

 but the hog, more nice in its taste than any of the former, 

 cats but 72 plants, and rejects all the rest." 



The. wonderful narrative of Galen is familiar to every 

 physician. ec Nature." says this author, u forming, fa- 

 shioning, and perfecting the parts of the bodv, hath so 

 brought it to pass, that they should of themselves, without 

 any teaching, set about and perform their proper actions s 

 and of this 1 once made a great experiment, bringing up a 

 kid without ever seeing its dam. For, dissecting some goats 

 big with young, to resolve some questions made by ana- 

 tomists concerning the ceconomy of nature in the formation 

 of the foetus in the womb, and finding a brisk embryon 

 (young one), I loosened it from the matrix after our usual 

 manner, and snatching it away, before it saw its dam, I 

 brought it into a certain room having many vessels full, 

 some of wine, some of oil, some of honey, some of milk, 

 or some other liquor ; and others, not a few, filled with all 

 sorts of grain, as also with several fruits, and there laid it. 

 This embryon we saw first of all getting up on its feet and 

 walking, as if it had heard that its legs were given it for 

 that purpose ; next shaking off the slime it was besmeared 

 with from the womb \ and moreover, thirdly, scratching its- 

 side with one of his feet : then we saw it smelling to every 

 one of those things that were v se't in the room, and when it 

 had smelt to them all, it supped up the milk ; whereupon 

 we all for admiration cried out, seeing clearly the truth of 

 what Hippocrates saith, that the natures and actions of ani- 

 mals are not taught, but by instinct. Hereupon I nourished 

 and reared this kid, and observed it afterwards not only to 

 eat milk but some other things that stood by it. And the 

 time when this kid was taken out of the womb being about 

 the vernal equinox, after some two months were brought 

 unto it the tender sprouts of shrubs and plants, and it again 

 smelling of all of them, instantly refused some, but was 

 pleased to taste others 5 and after it had tasted 3 began to eat 



of 



