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MR. GLOAG’S IMPROVED HOBBLES. 
from the wish to observe, it may so pervert the faculty in its 
very use and exercise, that, be his wish what it may, he cannot 
observe honestly. He gives an undue weight to the facts which 
accord with his assumed principle, and no weight at all to those 
that conflict with it. Habit forces him to do so, and he cannot 
help it. 
“ A very good and wise man, Cecil, has explained this matter by 
an illustration so beautiful and so true, that I must recite it to 
you. “ A watchmaker told me that a gentleman put an exqui- 
site watch into his hand, that went irregularly. It was as perfect 
a piece of work as was ever made. He took it to pieces, and put 
it together again twenty times. No manner of defect was to be 
discovered, and yet the watch went intolerably. At last it struck 
him, that the balance-wheel might have been near a magnet. On 
applying a needle to it, he found his suspicions true — here was all 
the mischief. The steel work in the other parts of the watch had 
a perpetual influence on its motions ; and the watch went as well 
as possible with a new wheel. If the soundest mind be magnet- 
ized by any predilection, it must act irregularly.’ ” 
MR. GLOAG’S IMPROVED HOBBLES. 
I am much obliged by your insertion of my last paper respect- 
ing a new description of hobbles ; but I see plainly that my im- 
perfect drawings have not conveyed the meaning I intended. 
Will you be so good as to refer to the last Veterinarian, p. 
88. Fig. 6 is wrong ; I do not think I gave such a figure in my 
drawings ; and the worst of it is, that the hobbles cannot be used 
by that drawing. I merely stated, that one D was a little longer 
than the rest, to admit of the chain passing through, and to re- 
ceive the cottrel. If figure 6 had been made without the pro- 
jection, it would have been right; but at present it cannot be 
understood. The figure at the head of this letter will explain 
