RECAPITULATION OF NUTRITION IN THE HORSE. 81 



conglobate glands, seem to be the rudiments of the blood-cor- 

 puscles, and to be identical with the chyle-corpuscles, and 'with 

 the white corpuscles of the blood. 



The lymphatic vessels arise either by radicles or distinct 

 plexuses ; but there is no reason to believe in the existence 

 anywhere of open mouths; thus, whatever passes into the 

 lymphatics must pass by transudation through their coats. 

 It is to be remarked, however, as singular, that the origin- 

 plexuses are everywhere composed of vessels larger than those 

 of the adjacent plexuses of the blood-vessels. 



Recapitulation of Nutrition in the Horse. It becomes 

 now easy to exhibit a condensed view of the process of 

 nutrition. The object is to trace the several steps by which 

 grass, hay, oats, beans, are rendered, in the first place, fit 

 to repair the waste of the blood, and through the blood to 

 supply the place of the continually disintegrated portions of 

 the living solids, particularly the muscular organs of motion 

 during the performance of their functions. The several organs 

 in which the crude aliment, such as grass, hay, oats, beans, 

 successively undergoes important alterations, are the mouth, 

 the stomach, the duodenum, the jejunum, and ilium, with the 

 aid of the bile and pancreatic juice, the villi of the small in- 

 testines, the mesenteric glands, after which the elaborated ali- 

 ment reaches the blood. It reaches the blood partly by ming- 

 ling with the blood of the capillary blood-vessels in the mu- 

 cous membrane of the stomach and small intestines, and partly 

 through the thoracic duct, the common trunk of the lacteal 

 and lymphatic system of vessels. A great part of the blood 

 into which the elaborated aliment is poured passes through the 

 liver, and all of it through the lungs, before it is transmitted 

 through the arterial system to repair the loss of the solids. 

 The capillary blood-vessels are the immediate parts of the vas- 

 cular system concerned in nutrition. The capillary arteries 



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