214 THE HORSE 



exhibited A few slight tonics should be given when the horse is recover, 

 ing from an attack of strangles. Two drachms each of gentian and 

 camomile, with one of ginger, will form a useful ball. 



THE SPLEEN. 



This organ, known commonly by the name of the melt, is a long, bluish- 

 brown substance, broad and thick at one end, and tapering at the other, 

 lying along the left side of the stomach, and between it and the short ribs. 

 It is of a spongy nature, divided into numerous little cells, not unlike a honey- 

 comb, and over which thousands of minute vessels thickly spread. The 

 jiarticular use of this body has never been clearly ascertained ; for in some 

 cruel experiments it has been removed without apparent injury to diges- 

 tion or any other function. It is, however, useful, at least occasionally, or 

 it would not have been given. It is perhaps a reservoir or receptacle for 

 any fluid that may be conveyed into the stomach more than is sufficient for 

 the purposes of digestion. 



The spleen is sometimes very extraordinarily enlarged, and has been 

 ruptured ; but we are not aware of any symptoms by which ^his can be 

 discovered. 



THE PANCREAS. 



In the domestic animals which are used for food this organ is called the 

 siceelbread. It lies between the stomach and left kidney. It much 

 resembles in structure the salivary glands in the neighbourhood of the 

 mouth, and the fluid which it secretes is very like the common saliva. The 

 pancreatic fluid is carried into the intestines by a duct, which enters at the 

 same aperture with that from the liver. Its use, whether to dilute the bile, 

 or the chyme, or to assist in the separation of chyme from the feculent 

 matter, has never been ascertained,,but it is clearly employed in aiding the 

 process of digestion. 



We know not of any disease to which the pancreas of the horse is liable. 



As soon as the belly of most of our domestic animals is opened, a mem- 

 brane is perceived spreading over all the contents of this cavity j it is 

 denominated 



THE OMENTUM, 



Or cawl It is a doubling of the peritoneum, or rather consists of four 

 layers of it. It has been supposed to be placed between the intestines and 

 the walls of the belly to prevent concussion and injury during the rapid 

 movement of the animal. That, however, cannot be its principal use in 

 the horse, from whom the most rapid movements are required ; for in him 

 it is unusually short, extending only to the pancreas, a small portion of the 

 colon. Being, however, thus short, the horse is exempt from a very 

 troublesome and, occasionally, fatal species of rupture, when a portion of 

 the omentum penetrates through some accidental opening in the covering 

 of the belly. 



The blood contains a great quantity of watery fluid unnecessary for the 

 nutriment or repair of the frame. There likewise mingle with it matters 

 which would become noxious if suffered to accumulate too much. 



THE KIDNEYS 



Are actively employed in separating this water, and likewise carrying off 

 a substance which constitutes the peculiar ingredient in the urine, called th«- 

 urea, and consists principally of that which would be poisonous to the 



