254 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



the stomach, is completed, and ultimately expelled in 

 the form of faeces. 



The abdominal viscera, taken collectively, cannot 

 be said to occupy any particular region of the belly, 

 for they are spread chiefly over the lower portions of 

 it immediately supported by the abdominal muscles, 

 and one or more of them are found in every portion of 

 the cavity of the belly, and collectively fill nearly its 

 whole space. 



The length of the intestines of the horse of full 

 dimensions is ninety feet, or between eight and nine 

 times the length of his body. Those of man are 

 about sixty feet long, or six times the length of the 

 body. 



The food having been partially digested in the 

 stomach, and converted into a substance called chyme, 

 passes through the pyloric orifices into the intestines. 

 The length of the intestines in animals bears a pro- 

 portion according to the nature of the food. The 

 nutritive portion of vegetables is extracted with much 

 more difficulty than with animal substances, and 

 hence the necessity of the alimentary canal being 

 much longer and more complicated in the horse and 

 other animals which feed upon vegetables. This 

 viscera is divided into the small and large intestines, 

 from the latter exceeding in volume the former. Each 

 of these is subdivided into three parts, all of which 

 are composed of three coats : the first, or external 

 one, is called the peritoneal ; the second, or middle, 

 the muscular ; and the third, or internal, the villous or 

 mucous coat. 



The peritoneal coat is a covering continued from 

 the peritoneum itself, which includes the mesenteric 

 vessels and nerves in its course to the intestines, and 

 connects them to the spine, to one another, and to 



