ACT OF DEGLUTITION IN THE HORSE. 31 



chewed by all horses, and scarcely at all by hungry and greedy 

 ones.* The knowledge of this fact has led to the rational 

 practice of mixing the chopped dry culms of forage or cereal 

 grasses with the corn and beans. By this addition the animal 

 is compelled to chew his food. What is here called chopped 

 dry culms is very improperly called chaff, thus confounding it 

 with the husks of grain. It is usually a mixture of cut hay 

 and cut straw (both of which are properly termed culms) 

 variously proportioned. For example, it may be composed of 

 equal proportions of clover and meadow hay, and wheaten, 

 oaten, or barley straw, cut into pieces of a quarter or half an 

 inch in length, and mingled well together ; to this the pro- 

 posed allowance of oats or beans is then added and thoroughly 

 mixed therewith. It is also an advantage first to bruise the 

 oats or the beans. The animal is by this contrivance forced 

 to chew the food. The chopped culm is too hard and too sharp 

 to be swallowed without a complete mastication, and while the 

 horse is compelled to employ his molar teeth upon the chopped 

 culm, the oats or beans obtain the requisite amount of grind- 

 ing, to the great increase of the nourishment supplied. 



When the food, whatever be its nature, has become com- 

 pletely masticated by the teeth, and at the same time mingled 

 with the salivary secretion, so as to have become of a pulpy 

 description, it is collected on the tongue preparatory to the 

 act of deglutition that is, preparatory to the act of swallow- 

 ing by which it is conveyed through the pharynx and gullet 

 into the stomach. 



The act of deglutition is commonly considered as consisting 

 of three stages : In the first, the bolus, as it is technically 

 called, is pressed backwards towards the base of the tongue ; 

 in the second, it makes a kind of bolt from the base of the 

 tongue over the orifice of the air-passages of the lungs into 



* Youatt on the Horse, p. 463. 



