NATURAL HISTORY. 173 



health. The milk of young cows is too thick, that 

 of old ones during the winter is also too thick. The 

 milk of cows which are hot, is not good, any more 

 than that of a cow which is near her time, or which 

 has lately calved. In the third and fourth stomach 

 of the calf which sucks, there are clots of curdled milk. 

 These when dried in the air, serve to make runnet, or 

 that well-known substance which coagulates milk. 

 The longer the runnet is kept, the better it is, and it 

 requires but a small quantity of it to make a great 

 deal of cheese. 



Bulls, cows, and oxen, are apt to lick themselves, 

 but mostly when they are quiet ; and as it is thought 

 that it hinders them from fattening, it is usual to rub 

 all the parts of their bodies they can touch with their 

 dung. When this precaution is not taken, they raise 

 up the hair of their coats with their tongues, which 

 are very rough, and they swallow this hair in large 

 quantities. As this substance cannot digest, it re- 

 mains in the stomach, and forms round, smooth balls, 

 which is sometimes of so considerable a size, as to 

 prevent their digestion. These knobs in time get co- 

 vered with a brown crust, which is somewhat hard. 

 It is, notwithstanding, but a thick mucilage, which, 

 by rubbing and co-action becomes hard and shining. 

 It is never found any where but in the paunch, and it' 

 any of the hair gets into the other stomachs, it does 

 not remain, but seems to pass with the aliments. 



Animals which have incisive teeth, such as the 

 horse and the ass, in both jaws, bite short grass more 

 easily than those which want incisive teeth in the up- 

 per jaw. Hence if the sheep and the goat bite the 

 closest, it is because they are small, and their lips are 

 tliin-. But the ox, whose lips are thick, can only bite 



