Horse, especially if he be (as the Phrase is among Horse-masters)
a _Nash_ or _Wash-Horse_. The cause of which thinness will easily be
granted to be only an exhaustion of Juice, expended out of the Blood, which
did stuff out these Vessels. And whoever, that is used to ride hard, shall
observe, how thick this foul Horse breaths, and at what a rate he will reek
and sweat, will not much wonder at the alteration. But if the Horse be a
hardy one, and used to be hard ridden, then you will see, that one days
rest, and his belly full of good meat and drink, will in one day or two
almost restore him to his former plight, the food being within that short
space of time so distributed, that all the Vessels will be replenish'd
again, as before. And the cleaner the Horse is, the sooner recruited, and
the less sign of hard riding will appear. This seems to shew the facility,
with which the Juice, called Blood, passeth; Which surely, if there were
such a thing as a _Parenchyma_ might by several accidents (not difficult to
mention) be so deprav'd in several parts of it, that it might lose its
receptive faculty; than which it may be thought to have none of greater
use, being supposed to be without Vessels.

2. Discoursing sometimes with _Grasiers_ in the Country, about the Pasture
of Cattle, I have been informed by them, that, if they buy any Old Beasts,
Oxen, or Cows to feed, they choose rather those that are as poor as can be,
so they be sound; because that, if they are pretty well in flesh, what they
then add to them by a good pasture, though it make them both look and sell
well, yet it will not make them eat so well, their flesh proving hard and
very tough: Which some may suppose to be the age of _Parenchyma_; and so it
is of that so called. But if those Beasts be old and extremely poor, then
they feed very kindly, and will be not only very fat but spend well, like
young ones, and eat very tender.

Of which I take the reason (excluding a _Parenchyma_ now) to be this. When
an Oxe or a Cow is grown old, and in an indifferent plight as to his
_flesh_ (for so it is called) all those Vessels having been kept at that
size for the most part, have contracted a tenseness and firmness, and their
_fibers_ less extensive, nor so fitted for the reception of more unctuous
particles to relaxe them; and that additional unctuous matter, which
occasions fatness, is forced to seek new quarter any where (often remote
from Muscles) where it can be with le