BREEDING. 87 



to opprefs nature, by a compulfive fecretion 

 and evacuation of milk from a mare again 

 advanced in foal, the more will the fubjed: 

 in embryo be confequently impoverifhed and 

 reftrained, when deprived of its portion of 

 nutriment, then converted through another 

 channel, and appropriated to a different ufe. 

 This incontrovertible fyftem of the animal 

 oeconomy muft be fo evidently clear to the 

 mod uncultivated comprehenfion, (accuf- 

 tomed to dedicate but little attention to the 

 flighteft indications of nature) that it be- 

 comes matter of adnpiration how fo abfurd a 

 practice can ever be fupported upon the bafis 

 of inadvertency ; when it- would be rendering 

 nature acceflary to a perverfion of her own 

 laws, even to fuppofe it was ever intended, 

 that any animal exifting fhould longer fubfiil 

 or prey upon the very vitals of its dam, when 

 the frame w^as again advancing in pregnancy 

 with another. 



From this neceffary allufion to a practice 

 that is not only exceedingly common and 

 too little attended to, but is alfo prejudi- 

 cial to the fubjeds themfelves in a greater 

 G 4 degree 



