STOMACH IN THE HORSE. 39 



is not in complete apposition with the posterior surface of the 

 diaphragm, and not at all with the upper surface of the abdo- 

 minal wall, so that it cannot, in the horse, be strongly com- 

 pressed between these two muscular parts, as happens in the 

 complete vomiting of carnivorous animals. A fold of the small 

 intestines has sometimes been found passing between the pos- 

 terior surface of the diaphragm and the outer wall of the 

 stomach. 



The outer surface of the stomach, being a serous surface 

 that is, a part of the inner surface of the great peritoneal sac 

 is everywhere free, in the anatomical sense, except at the 

 cardiac and pyloric orifices, and along the line of the two 

 curvatures. To the line of the lesser curvature a fold of 

 peritoneum, composed of two close laminse, extends from the 

 liver ; along this line the two laminae open and expand into 

 the peritoneal coat of the stomach, the one lamina passing 

 over its superior aspect, the other over its inferior aspect, to 

 meet at the great curvature, where they reunite to form the 

 two anterior laminse of the great omentum. Thus the great 

 omen turn, which is of no great size in the horse, is projected 

 as a double lamina from the great curvature of the stomach, 

 and is found to become continuous with a double lamina of 

 the same membrane proceeding from the transverse part of the 

 colon, the inferior lamina of the gastric omentum, and the 

 superior lamina of the colic omentum, being a second replica- 

 tion of the serous sac at the foramen of Winslow, close to its 

 original attachment to the liver. 



The left lobe of the liver lies anterior to the right extremity 

 of the stomach, and the spleen lies between the stomach and 

 the lower ribs, termed the false ribs ; the pancreas or sweet- 

 bread is behind and rather above the small curvature of the 

 stomach, lying across the spine. The principal coats of the 

 stomach are the peritoneal or serous, already referred to, the 



