The _fat_ of swine differs, in its situation, from that of almost every other quadruped, as it covers the animals all over, and forms a thick, distinct, and continued layer betwixt the flesh and the skin, somewhat like the blubber in whales (118). It is called _lard_, and is applicable to various uses, both culinary and medicinal; and particularly to the composition of ointments. The general mode of preparation is to melt it in a jar placed in a kettle of water; and in this state to boil it, and run it into bladders that have been cleansed with great care. The smaller the bladders are the better the lard will keep. The fat which adheres to the parts connected with the intestines differs from common lard, and is preferably employed for the greasing of carriage wheels. The _blood_, the _feet_, and the _tongue_, are all adopted for food. The _skin_, when properly dressed, is used for the seats of saddles; by book-binders, and other artisans. In China hogs' skins are much in request by shoe-makers. All the shoes that are sold to Europeans at Canton are made of hogs' leather, the hair having previously been burnt off with a hot iron. In our own country, when swine are killed for food, it is not customary to strip off the skin, but merely to rid it of the bristles, by scalding the animals, after they are dead, with hot water, or singeing them with lighted straw. Consequently the hogs' skins which we use are chiefly imported from abroad. The _bristles_ of swine are made into brushes of various kinds, and are also employed by shoe-makers in the place of needles. Among the other uses of swine, it may not generally be known that, in the island of Minorca, they are employed as beasts of draught. They are frequently yoked to the plough with asses; and one writer speaks of having seen a cow, a sow, and two young horses, all yoked together, and of these the sow drew the best. In some parts of Italy swine are used in hunting for truffles, an eatable species of fungus which grow at the depth of some inches in the ground. A cord being tied to the hind leg of one of these animals, the beast is driven into certain pastures; and we are told that truffles are always to be found wherever he stops and begins to turn up the earth with his nose.