OF PARRIERY. 



227 



this part that bots are usually found. Some- 

 times, however, they go from this part, and 

 attach themselves to the sensible part of the 

 stomach, properly so named ; for it is endued 

 with exquisite sensibility, and is one of the 

 most important organs of the body ; its office 

 being that of digesting food, and so preparing 

 it as to render it fit for forming blood. Much 

 has been said of the gastric juice, as if some 

 peculiar fluid were formed in the stomach for 

 the purpose of digestion ; and physiologists 

 and chemists have oeen at considerable pains 

 in investigating the composition and nature of 

 this fluid ; but their researches have always 

 proved fruitless, and ever will ; for the juice 

 they have examined, is nothing more than a 

 common mucous fluid, such as is found in the 

 intestines and other cavities. In the Horse, 

 digestion and chylification are performed m 



the stomach only, not by any particular juice 

 that is formed there, but by virtue of its sen- 

 sorial power, which it derives in common 

 with all the vital organs ; but in a more 

 especial manner, from the cerebrum or brain, 

 and from that part of the brain named cor- 

 pora pyramidalia, through the eighth pair of 

 nerves, or par vagum, as they are termed. It 

 appeared necessary to go thus far into a de- 

 scription of the digestive organ ; that is, the 

 organs subservient to digestion, in order to 

 impress upon the reader's mind the import- 

 ance of the stomach in the animal economy ; 

 and to show how liable it must be to become 

 diseased, when frequently distended with un- 

 wholesome food, which containing but little 

 nutriment, requires its utmost exertions in 

 order to be digested ; and such is the hay 

 oilen given to Horses. 



