166 LESSER PARTS DESCRIBED ; [BOOK I. 



the system we had in view to illustrate and explain, 

 might have led him to look upon these in a light, 

 too important for the functions they perform — as 

 regards our present purpose. 



The eyes, the tongue, the ears, the skin and 

 hair, the tail, the genitals, and the hoof, or foot, 

 though each deserving our most sedate attention, 

 for many good reasons, yet, as they do not ori- 

 ginate disease, we then purposely avoided taking 

 particular notice of them *. Nevertheless, we do 

 not mean to deny, that they all, according to each 

 of its functions, accurately indicate the existence of 

 disease, as they do of health, and the degree of 

 both is marked on them with wonderful precision. 

 Hence it was easy to conclude, even though we did 

 not know the fact to a demonstration, that they are 

 subject to some deplorable maladies that are peculiar 

 to each, arising out of constitutional defectiveness, 

 to say nothing of accidents, nor of the fancied im- 

 provements man presumes, to make upon the works 

 of his Maker. 



Under this last reproach lie all those farriers 

 and others, who give pain unnecessarily to the 

 animal in the indispensable operations. Foremost 

 of these we class those of docking and nicking, a. 

 custom that came up among us in England, in the 

 early part of the seventeenth century. 



Since the censure that stood in this page was 



* The diseases of the foot, we consider as those of accident or in- 

 fliction, or depending upon other parts of the system ; and those, 

 with a brief anatomical description, will form a separate chapter. 



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