No. 3. 



Does the Pith of the Horn waste, yea or nay? 



35 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



" Does tlie Pith, of tlie Horn waste, yea or 

 nay ^""■Improviiig a ^vorn out SoiI« 



Observer, in his last number, has favored 

 us with his opinions upon " tail evil," for the 

 purpose, it seems, of making; another push at 

 the horns ; for he concludes by observing, 

 " that the hollow horn is the natural state of 

 the horn ; so is the tail evil the natural state 

 of the tail." 



Here 1 shall only remark, as I did with the 

 piths, that I see no reason why the tail should 

 be exempt from disease; why it should never 

 be "ill," and leave Observer to amuse him- 

 self with his odd stories about the tail, while 

 I peep a little iurther into the horns. 



Observer seems to attach some consider- 

 able importance to a knowledge capable of 

 discriminating between a rotten and a sound 

 horn. "It IS," he says, "often a nice and 

 delicate observation in pathology, to deter- 

 mine the question." Now where is the use 

 of thiowing mystery over a plain matter of 

 fact in this way, " a nice and delicate obser- 

 vation" to tell the difference between putrid 

 animal matter, (for the bones are animal mat- 

 ter,) and that which is sound. Some people 

 might be too nice and delicate to make the 

 observation, but as to the knowledge, a boy 

 of eight years old, that could not tell the 

 difference at the first glance, or even at the 

 first action of his olfactory nerve, would, in 

 common parlance, be called a green horn. 



There is some acknowledgement due to 

 Observer, for doubting my statement of tacts 

 in relation to this matter ; 'tis true, there is 

 something flattering in having one's state- 

 ments doubted ; but still it is so different from 

 contradiction, that I am willing to receive it 

 as an omen of more agreeable manners in 

 future. 



Observer next assumes the office of pre- 

 ceptor ; he " will inform Subscriber what he 

 probably does not know." To this I have 

 no objection, for I love to know things, and 

 am willing to learn of any one. "Bony ca- 

 ries or rotting, (he says,) is an ulceration of 

 living bones, produced by the action of the 

 absorbent vessels, which take up and carry 

 off the bony matter." Truly, this is what 

 I did not know, nor am I aware of any reason 

 why I should be supposed to know it, for I 

 presume such information is not generally 

 possessed by men either of scientific or ordi- 

 nary knowledge. 



This action of the absorbent vessels may, 

 in one sense, be considered the consequence, 

 but never the cause of disease. So far is the 

 action of the absorbent vessels from produc- 

 ing ulcerations, that it removes them, or 

 more properly speaking, separates the living 

 from the dead matter. ! 



Observer might as well say that medicine 

 produces the disease it is intended to cure, as 

 to say that bony caries is produced by the 

 action of the absorbent vessels. 



A dose of calomel and opium does not pro- 

 duce the dysentery when it cures it; neither 

 does the action of the absorbent vessels pro- 

 duce ulcerations when it releases them from 

 the living parts of the body. 



The action of the absorbent vessels is the 

 natural effect of a healthy organization ; it 

 never produces disease of any kind. Bony 

 caries originate, like all other diseases, from 

 the various casualties and accidents to which 

 animal beings are liable ; the absorbent ves- 

 sels are in constant action, and approach the 

 disease as near as the laws of organised life 

 will permit, and simply leaves the sanies or 

 filthy matter to ooze out of the wound in thin 

 acrid discharges. Observer will perhaps say 

 this is not always the case, and I wish to save 

 him the trouble by a little further explana- 

 tion. The bone is sometimes diseased with- 

 out an external issue, and sometimes the ori- 

 fice making this ichorous discharge heals up. 

 I know a young man, who, a few years ago, 

 had a diseased finger with an issue of acrid 

 matter, but the orifice closed up, and the ab- 

 sorbents carried away the diseased bone until 

 his finger was reduced about half an inch in 

 length. 



I think it useless to follow up Observer's 

 " very nice and delicate observations in pa- 

 thology," through all the varied changes of 

 decomposition, tor it would be no difficult 

 matter to show by a parity of reasoning that 

 there is no rotting in the horn, nor in any 

 thing else. Simple substances, oxygen, hy- 

 drogen, carbon, &c. never rot ; horns are 

 constituted of those simple atoms of matter; 

 therefore, horns never rot. I understand the 

 pith of a horn to be rotten when the action 

 of the surrounding elements has entirely 

 changed its form, and produced decomposi- 

 tion in its prominent features. 



Since my last essay was sent to the Cabi- 

 net, I have been engaged in the agreeable 

 hardship of harvesting a heavy crop of grain 

 and hay, which, with other engagements, has 

 deprived me of leisure sufficient to examine 

 an additional lot of horns which [designed to 

 do, previous to sending any further statement 

 of facts to the Cabinet. As an apology, there- 

 fore, of this neglect, I will transcribe from 

 my Farm Ledger, a three year's history of 

 an old worn out field, being part of a farm 

 purchased in 1834. 



This field, in the spring of 1835, presented 

 one of the most dreary prospects to the eye 

 of the farmer that can well be imagined. 

 Corn had been the last crop which was esti- 

 mated at seven bushels to the acre, and the 

 vvhole amount of verdure then upon the field 



