A treatise on cattle : showing the most approved methods of breeding, rearing, and fitting for use, asses, mules, horned cattle, sheep, goats, and swine ; with directions for the proper treatment of them in their several disorders : to which is added, a dissertation on their contagious diseases ; carefully collected from the best authorities, and interspersed with remarks / by John Mills, Esq.

John Mills

Date:: 1795

Credit: A treatise on cattle : showing the most approved methods of breeding, rearing, and fitting for use, asses, mules, horned cattle, sheep, goats, and swine ; with directions for the proper treatment of them in their several disorders : to which is added, a dissertation on their contagious diseases ; carefully collected from the best authorities, and interspersed with remarks / by John Mills, Esq. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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$■■'JO A Tree life en Cottle. BOOK II. Of MULE S. THE mule is a beaft of burden, hegot by n mala afs and a mare, or by a Itallion horfe and a female -afs. There art-both max and female mule-', and both of them are very eager for copulation} but they do not breed, at leafi in climates like this. Some think it is becaufe they proceed from two different fpecies of animals : but others fay po- sitively that they do breed in hot countries.* In France, where many mules are bred, they are not iuffered to couple, btcauie that renders them vi- cious and fpiteful. * AM anim-!s whi h owethelr origin to creatures of different foc- cics are genet ally termrd mules, and accounted barren: hut, ih.M.-gli it does not appear that mules, ■ m «i ■> riiiw iim the afs a:id mare, pj from a flallion-hoifc wi h a Ih'-afs, pi n irrrcT atrrwng trirt.. felves, ot with thofe from whom ttcy arc derived; yet, as M. de Buffon oblerves in his Natural H'llory ofthe Goat, this opinion is perhaps ill founded : for the auci nts po(: ive!y afleri 'har the mule is able to ptocrca e at lev en y.ars. and that he docs actually proof ate with the iraie la . [hey a lo t( II us, thai a in.il: is r;:p,ib e r,t c ncep- lion, though ii nevei brings i's l>ui'. to ma u i:> (.'•). Thefe :i which throw a veil of daikne s over ihe ical diflin&i >» between ani- mals and ihe thcoiy of generation, fhouid tht ret ie eitner be confuted or confirmed. Defines, had «c iv.' (<> char a knowledge ot all the fpecKS of animals around us y t we know noi whai a mixture t.;iv\eca thcmfe.ves, or witn foreign animals would pr duce. We are, con- tinues th s judicious writer, but h Ie acquainted \Ai:h ihe'jutnar, trat is, tne produce of the cow ana the afs, 01 th<- mare and the l.u'l. We knoA not wiitthcr the z<bia w< ti d not copulate with ilie hoile 01 the • fs: whether the thick-tailed creaiure known by th« name o' ihe Bar- ba:y ram, would not pr.ducc wi h oui ewe : whether the chamois be [a] Klulus ftptennis imp'tre pet ft, ft jam cum tqiu corjuntlus Lin nam pro- trcaml. Anil .nit. Animal lib Vi.cap. kxiv. (b) I a que canc'pr.rc quidem aJiquinda inula boteji qod jam faflvm ejl ; fed cuutrire atquc injinen ferducere nori put eft. Mot ecncrmt iatadvm$

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