300 CASES OF STONE IN THE BLADDER. [BOOK II. 



animals for the most part, their owners opulent, if 

 not rich, and grain and pulse ever at hand, dry 

 food is invariably given to them with a liberal hand. 

 To render these substances more agreeable, to has- 

 ten digestion, and thus produce a fine coat with a 

 well-filled carcass, their corn is passed through the 

 mill, the beans also are usually broken; and, thus 

 pampered, they eagerly devour the ready feed, and 

 with it whatever extraneous substances it may have 

 acquired in the process of grinding. These are not 

 few in quantity, it seems ; for such articles are in- 

 variably ground between stones of a soft nature, 

 that easily part with their rough surface, and these 

 stony particles all find their way into the stomach 

 and intestines ; some, here and there, pass on 

 through the circulation, by means that are neither 

 uncertain nor inscrutable in the minds of those who 

 have studied such subjects, and will refresh their 

 memory by turning to what is said thereon in the 

 second chapter of the first book. 



Dr. Withers, of Newbury, Berks, having many 

 years before given to Dr. Hunter a large intestinal 

 stone, which proved fatal to the horse whence it 

 had been taken, communicates to the Medical So- 

 ciety of Crane Court, London, a similar circumstance 

 which had come under his observation — both being 

 cases of millers' horses. He then describes " the 

 case of a very valuable horse belonging to Mr. 

 Andrews, another miller, which lay ill of the colic," 

 as the owner supposed. " I told him (says Dr. 

 Withers) that if he would examine the intestines 



