They are (says he) easily eaten and taken in: But regard
should be had to their Digestion, Nature, Quantity and Quality of the
Matter. As to that of _Dissimilar_ Parts, requiring this contended for
Variety: If we may judge by other Animals (as I know not why we may not)
there is (after all the late Contests about _Comparative Anatomy_) so
little Difference in the Structure, as to the Use of those Parts and
Vessels destin'd to serve the Offices of Concoction, Nutrition, and
other Separations for Supply of Life, _&c._ That it does not appear
why there should need any Difference at all of Food; of which the most
simple has ever been esteem'd the best, and most wholsome; according
to that of the [79]Naturalist, _Hominis cibus utilissimus simplex_.
And that so it is in other Animals, we find by their being so seldom
afflicted with Mens Distempers, deriv'd from the Causes above-mentioned:
And if the many Diseases of _Horses_ seem to [80]contradict it, I am apt
to think it much imputable to the Rack and Manger, the dry and wither'd
Stable Commons, which they must eat or starve, however qualified; being
restrained from their Natural and Spontaneous Choice, which Nature
and Instinct directs them to: To these add the Closeness of the Air,
standing in an almost continu'd Posture; besides the fulsome Drenches,
unseasonable Watrings, and other Practices of ignorant _Horse-Quacks_
and surly Grooms: The Tyranny and cruel Usage of their Masters in tiring
Journeys, hard, labouring and unmerciful Treatment, Heats, Colds,
_&c.
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