274 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 



water, which ought also to be given in small and frequent 

 quantities. 



It would seem that Nature had wisely foreseen, that as 

 the horse was destined to be the servant of man, and to 

 render him more valuable and fitted for the labour that 

 would be required of him, it became necessary to diminish 

 the inconvenience and danger from pressure which would 

 necessarily accompany a large stomach, that the animal 

 should have one proportioned to the situation he was 

 destined to fill in creation. The great bulk and conse- 

 quent expenditure of his frame, require a large quantity 

 of food to be consumed to afi"ord nutriment. Yet the 

 stomach is wisely formed small, to prevent pressure as much 

 as possible ; and in addition it has the poAver of rapidly 

 decomposing the food, which speedily descends to a portion 

 of the intestine remote from the diaphragm, where the 

 pressure of the food cannot inconvenience him. Indeed 

 the whole of his digestive system is quick, and consequently 

 his food passes rapidly through him ; otherwise life never 

 could be sustained, considering the small proportional nutri- 

 ment contained in the ordinary food of the horse. 



We shall now proceed to describe the several parts of the 

 stomach. The situation which the stomach occupies in the 

 abdomen will be seen by a reference to plate ix. fig. 2, b ; 

 and its general form and several parts are represented in 

 plate viii. fig. 4. 



a, a. The mucous or villous portion of the stomach in which the 



food is chiefly digested, or converted into a soft and pulpy 

 substance. It extends over that portion of the stomach left 

 unoccupied by the cuticular part. It is of a yellowish cast, 

 inclining to red in some places. 



b. b. Is that portion of the stomach which is covered by cuticle or 



insensible skin. This cuticular substance is of the same 

 nature as the lining of the oesophagus, with which, indeed, at 



