been satisfactorily proved. Some physiologists have suggested that 

 Ihe villi (that is to say the ultimate branches of the arteries) of the 

 sensible part, secrete the gastric juice ; but, of this we have no man- 

 ner of proof; and it has also been conjectured, that the cuticular or 

 insensible portion performs the office of grinding the food, somewhat 

 similar to, though in a less degree than a gizzard. But, if the 

 insensible portion* of the Horse's stomach performs the office of a 

 gizzard at all (a fact which I very mu^h dtaubt) it must be in an incon- 

 ceivably small degree indeed ; inasmuch a» we find that oats which 

 escape being crushed by the teeth, though moistened with saliva in 

 the mouth, and afterwards soaked with the juices of the stomach, are 

 not burst or broken down in^ this organ, but are uniformly voided 

 whole, in every case, where the husk, over whicli the gastric juice has 

 no power, remains entire. But though we cannot say what the 

 peculiar office is which the cuticular portion of the Horse's stomach 

 performs, there is certainly, one inference, fairfy and safely deducible 

 from its structure, which i» tiiat the Author of Nature designed this 

 animal to be granivorous as well as graminivorous inasmuch as this 

 Kimenes8of organization' exists^ not only in the whole Horse tribe, but 

 also in some other animal& destined to feed on grain, such as rats and 

 mice. 



But. as to the notion which has been a good deal in&isled upon, 

 that thi& peculiarity of structure is in some degree conneclid with 

 the difficulty of exciting nausea in the stomach of a Horse, noopinioni 

 in my view of the subject, can be less tenable or more purely hypo- 

 thetical. From some of the declamations which liave been made 

 on this point, one would be induced to imagine that the authors had 

 founded their opinions on the vulgar adage, wllkh seems to imply, 

 that a Horse cannot be made sick. 



