280 ANIMALS OF THE 



quadrupeds, yet, except the musk or hartshorn 

 alone, I know of none in any degree of reputa- 

 tion. It is true, the fat, the urine, the beak, and 

 even the dung of various animals, may be found 

 efficacious, where better remedies are not to be 

 had ; but they are far surpassed by many at pre- 

 sent in use, whose operations we know, and whose 

 virtues are confirmed by repeated experience. 



Such are the quadrupeds that more peculiarly 

 belong to the goat kind. Each of these, in all 

 probability, can engender and breed with the 

 other ; and were the whole race extinguished 

 except any two, these would be sufficient to re- 

 plenish the world, and continue the kind. Na- 

 ture, however, proceeds in her variations by slow 

 and insensible degrees, and scarcely draws a firm 

 distinguished line between any two neighbouring 

 races of animals whatsoever. Thus it is hard to 

 discover where the sheep ends and the goat be- 

 gins ; and we shall find it still harder to fix pre- 

 cisely the boundaries between the goat kind and 

 the deer. In all transitions from one kind to the 

 other, there is to be found a middle race of ani- 

 mals, that seem to partake of the nature of both, 

 and that can precisely be referred to neither. 

 That race of quadrupeds called the Gazelles are 

 of this kind ; they are properly neither goat nor 

 deer, and yet they have many of the marks of 

 both they make the shade between these two 

 kinds, and fill up the chasm in nature. 



