CHAP. III.] DEFINED — HOW DERANGED. 163 



component parts of the body is unceasingly sup- 

 plied with new and healthy matter, has been shown, 

 in the foregoing brief account of the separate parts 

 that contribute, by their united actions, to make up 

 this system. A system that, although apparently 

 complex and infirm, is, in reality, simple, magnifi- 

 cent, and robust. It is we (mankind) who derange 

 the due action of those parts, by our vanity, our 

 wants, and self-will ; or, by our ignorance, put the 

 whole system out of repair, when we endeavour 

 to control Nature, instead of humbly following her 

 track, and working after her fashion ; and every 

 mechanic knows, that a system, or a machine, being 

 once put out of order in its minutest part, incurs 

 the danger of complete disorganization in those that 

 are more evidently material to the performance of 

 its functions as a whole : an observation that applies 

 as well to a watch or a steam-engine, as to a worm, 

 to man, or the horse ; but which, of course, it is our 

 intention should be applied to the last-mentioned 

 animal particularly. 



Our Creator, however, as if prescient of the bar- 

 barities his image would fall into, in Xhe exercise 

 and abuse of the power he gave us over the living 

 things of the earth, hath, in his goodness, conferred 

 on brutes the means of supplying from one part of 

 the system the losses which accident may occasion 

 in another part : a subject well worthy our patient 

 scrutiny, as furnishing the means of effecting cures 

 in desperate cases, and not to be disregarded in 

 first attacks of malignant diseases, 



