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Though there is a wide field of objection to the matter of this 

 defcription, I mall confine myfelf to the latinity and obfcurity 

 of it. 



And firft what is intended by pofteriora curat? for though per- 

 haps a meaning may fuggeft itfelf to fome readers, yet it is not 

 true in fact that the horle is more cleanly than many other quar 

 drupeds in that circumftance, by any care or trouble which he takes 

 himfelf. 



What is the reader to understand again by alterum fcalpit ? does 

 this lignify that one horfe rubs itfelf againft another ? and, if it 

 does, is this circumftance peculiar to this quadruped ?, 



The next unintelligible expreffion is, " pullum injurise ob-r 

 " noxium reponif" to which, for a confiderable time, I could 

 affix no fenfe whatfoever, but have a diftant guefs that it means, 

 <e when the foal is in danger, the dam places it behind her;" but is 

 this circumftance again peculiar to the horfe ? 



Having produced thefe proofs of defcriptions unintelligible, or 

 at leaft obfcure, by the ufe of improper terms - r I mail not dwell 

 upon the difagreeable (but moft eafy) talk of ftating multitudes 

 of other paffages equally objectionable ; and may truly fay, that 

 I fcarcely ever examined, with attention, an article in the Syftema 

 Naturae, with regard to the terms of which I have not continued 

 to have my difficulties, though I have confulted fome of Linnaeus's, 

 moft zealous admirers. 



There is fcarcely any naturalift who hath publifhed fince the 

 Linnaean fyftem began to have a vogue, who hath not condemned 

 many parts of it ; fo that I am not lingular in fuppoling that it 

 hath its defects. 



But I conceive, that there is not only foundation for many of 

 thefe objections ; but that it hath, in many inftances, been pre- 

 judicial 



