Avery's own farrier. 277 



and the groom, the fireman that puts in fuel to keep the 

 whole in motion. The food of the horse after being 

 masticated, is taken into the stomach, and there digested^ 

 then it passes into the intestines, and the nutritious por- 

 tions are mingled with the fluids or gastric juice, when 

 it is sucked up by an infinite number of mouths, or lac- 

 teals, which are connected with (he blood vessels, from 

 whence it is carried in the form of blood through the 

 heart and distributed to every part of the system. While 

 a portion of the gum, starch and sugar, contained in 

 vegetables aie used by the animal, in respiration or 

 creating heat to the lungs, and other portiorjs of the 

 body. These substances consist of carbon and water 

 only, the carbon combining with oxygen, is breathed out 

 in the form of carbonic acid. To say no more about the 

 niceties of his complicated structure, it is just as evident 

 that the horse requires food that contains these proper- 

 ties in right proportion for his constituent parts, as it is 

 to suppose that the engine must be supplied with wood 

 and water, in order to get up steam enough to propel its 

 machinery (and one is about as complicated as the 

 other); and when these properties are not found in suffi- 

 cient quantities, or in right proportions, in the food of 

 the animal, or in wood and water for the engine, then 

 the oil for lubricating the machinery is drawn'upon for 

 fuel, or the fat and flesh itself of the animal goes into 

 the furnace, and the whole is soon burned out, when it 

 ceases to exist. But when both are properly supplied 

 with food and fuel, they may be seen puffing and snort- 

 ing across the plain together, until the one challenges 



24 ^ 



