THE STOMACH 245 



became necessary to diminish the inconvenience and 

 danger from pressure which would necessarily ac- 

 company a large stomach, that the animal should 

 have one proportioned to the situation he was 

 destined to fill in creation. The great bulk and 

 consequent expenditure of his frame require a large 

 quantity of food to be consumed to afford nutriment. 

 Yet the stomach is wisely formed small, to prevent 

 pressure as much as possible ; and in addition it 

 has the power of rapidly digesting the food, which 

 speedily descends to a portion of the intestine remote 

 from the diaphragm, where the pressure of the food 

 cannot inconvenience him. Indeed, the whole of his 

 digestive system is quick, and consequently his food 

 passes rapidly through him ; otherwise life never 

 could be sustained, considering the small proportional 

 nutriment contained in the ordinary food of the 

 horse. 



We shall now proceed to describe the several 

 parts of the stomach. The situation which the 

 stomach occupies in the abdomen will be seen by 

 a reference to Plate ix, fig. 2, b; and its general 

 form and several parts are represented in Plate vm, 

 fig. 4. 



#, a. The mucous or villous portion of the stomach in which 

 the food is chiefly digested, or converted into a soft and 

 pulpy substance. It extends over that portion of the 

 stomach left unoccupied by the cuticular part. It is of 

 a yellowish cast, inclining to red in some places. 



, b. Is that portion of the stomach which is covered by cuticle 

 or insensible skin. This cuticular substance is of the 

 same nature as the lining of the oesophagus, with which, 

 indeed, at the cardia it is continuous. Numerous small 

 openings are visible upon its inner surface, through 

 which issues a mucous fluid, the product of follicular 

 glands underneath, which is useful in the process of 



