368 THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 



to deserve any particular regard. In some animals, 

 hovv^ever, an acid exists, uncombined and ready formed 

 in their bodies. This is particularly manifest in some 

 insects, especially ants, from which an acid has been 

 procured by boiling them in water. 



The solid parts of animal bodies, as the muscles, 

 teguments, tendons, cartilages, and even the bones, 

 when boiled with water, give a gelatinous matter or 

 glue, resembling the vegetable gums, but much more 

 adhesive. We must, however, except the horny parts 

 and the hair, which seem to be little soluble either in 

 water or in the liquors of the stomach. The acids, 

 the alkalies, and quick-lime, are also found to be 

 powerful solvents of animal matter. It is from the 

 solid parts that the greatest quantity of volatile alkali 

 is obtained ; it arises along with a very foetid empy- 

 reumatic oil, from which it is in some measure se- 

 parated by repeated rectifications. This salt is partly 

 in a fluid, and partly in a solid state, and from its 

 having been formerly prepared in the greatest quantity 

 from the horns of the stag, it has been called salt, or 

 spirits of hartshorn. Volatile alkali, however, is pro- 

 curable from all animals, and from almost every part 

 of an animal, except the fat. Though we are some- 

 times able to procure the fixed alkali from an animal 

 cinder, yet it is probable that this salt did not make 

 any part of the living animal, but rather proceeded 

 from the introduction of saline matter, incapable 

 of being assimilated by the functions of the living 

 creature. 



In speaking of the fluid parts of animals, we should 

 first examine the general fluid from whence the rest 

 are secreted. The blood, which at first sight, appears 

 to be a homogenous fluid, is composed of several parts, 

 easily separable from each other, and which the 



