STOMACHS IN THE OX. 95 



The stomach, the liver, the spleen, the pancreas or sweet- 

 bread, the small and the great intestines, all obtain their outer 

 serous coat from the peritoneum. It covers also the womb, 

 and the large end of the urinary bladder. The outer surface 

 of all these organs, where the peritoneum forms that surface, 

 is, in the language of anatomy, free that is, unattached, and 

 capable of gliding smoothly over the free surface in contact 

 therewith. As a general rule, the peritoneal sac reaches all 

 these organs to give to them their covering, in the form of a 

 fold, consisting of two plates or laminae, quite close to each 

 other, being joined by the immediate contact of two parts of 

 the outer surface, or surface of attachment. As the fold ap- 

 proaches the organ to be invested, the two laminae separate 

 and enclose the organ, meeting again at the opposite side of 

 the organ in some instances, while in other instances the organ 

 is embraced between the laminas like a stone in a sling, and 

 thus hangs as it were projecting into the interior of the sac. 

 The small intestines afford an example of the latter disposition 

 of the laminae, as these are suspended by the fold forming the 

 mesentery, like a stone in a sling ; while the liver and stomach 

 illustrate the other mode of adjustment for the peritoneum, 

 passing from the diaphragm in the form of two laminae united, 

 reaches the liver and encloses it ; after which the laminae close, 

 and, under the form of the omentum gastro-hepaticum, com- 

 posed of two united layers, reaches the stomach, where, again 

 expanding, these layers cover the stomach, to unite again at 

 the anterior and inferior side, where, by another union, they 

 form part of the great omentum. 



Stomachs. When the inferior wall of the abdomen is cut 

 through in the middle line, and thrown back to each side, in 

 the ox, it is not the colon, as in the horse, which makes the 

 most conspicuous appearance by occupying the chief part of 

 the exposed abdominal surface, but the paunch, or first of the 



