sty.[116] If this treatment does not suffice, let the blood, chiefly
from the head.

"So there are different causes and different symptoms of the maladies
peculiar to each kind of cattle, and the flock master should have them
all written down.

"It remains to speak of the ninth head (c), which I mentioned, and this
relates to the number of cattle to be kept and so concerns both of the
other heads.

"For whoever buys cattle must consider the number of herds and how many
in each herd he can feed on his land, lest his pastures prove short or
more than he need, as so in either case the profit be lost. Further
more, one should know how many breeding ewes there are in the flock,
how many rams, how many lambs of each sex, how many culls to be weeded
out. Thus, if a ewe has more lambs at a birth than she can nourish,
you should do what some shepherds practise--take part of them away
from her, which is done to the end that those remaining may prosper."

"Beware!" put in Atticus, "that your generalisations do not lead
you astray, and that your insistence on the rule of nine does not
contradict your own definition of small and large cattle: for how can
all your principles be applied to mules and to shepherds, since those
with respect to breeding certainly cannot be followed so far as they
are concerned. As to dogs I can see their application. I admit even
that men may be included in them, because they have their wives on
the farm in winter, and indeed even in their summer pasture camps,
a concession which is deemed beneficial because it attaches the
shepherds to their flocks, and by begetting children they increase the
establishment and with it the profit on your investment."

"If Scrofa's number cannot be measured with a carpenter's rule," said
I, "neither can many other generalisations, as, for instance, when we
say that a thousand ships sailed against Troy, or that a certain court
of Rome consists of a hundred judges (_centumviri_). Leave out, if you
wish, the two chapters relating to breeding in so far as mules are
concerned."

"But why should we," exclaimed Vaccius, "for it is related that on
several occasions at Rome a mule has had a foal."

To back up what Vaccius had said, I cited Mago and Dionysius as
writing that when mules and mares conceive they bear in the twelfth
month. "If," I added, "it is considered a prodigy in Italy when a mule
has a foal, it is not necessarily so in all countries. For is it not
true th