Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

THE
ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE
AND
DISEASES OF CATTLE.
CHAPTER IX.
THE STRUCTURE AND DISEASES OF THE HEAD OF THE OX.
Having described the various breeds of cattle, and touched incidentally
on some of the principles of breeding, we are now prepared
to enter into the consideration of the structure of the ox. This will
afford us opportunity of more satisfactorily elucidating the peculiarities,
or points, on the development of which the excellence of the
beast, for certain purposes, is supposed to depend; and will also
enable us to understand the nature and proper treatment of the
diseases to which neat cattle are subject. The first "is an important
but disputed topic :
it has been founded too much on mere assertion ;
it has varied with the caprice of individuals, or the fashion of the
day ; and it has rarely been" referred to principle, and to the necessary
effect of certain conformations on the capacity of the animal for
certain purposes : the latter, more important still, has been altogether
neglected, for until lately there did not exist, in the English
language, and scarcely in any other, a scientific and satisfactory ac-
count of the nature and causes and cure of the maladies of neat cattle
; but these animals were, with few exceptions, abandoned to the
tender mercies of those whose practice may be characterized as a
compound of ignorance and brutality.
For the purpose of future reference, we first introduce the skeleton
of the ox.