THE STOMACH. 273 



This organ is of vast importance in the animal economy ; 

 in short, it is indispensable to their being ; no animal is 

 without one. This is not the case with the brain, and mucli 

 less with the heart, as we know that animal life is sustained 

 in some species without either. That great anatomist, John 

 Hunter, in his physiological disquisitions, showed that the 

 existence of a stomach was the chief characteristic between 

 animals and vegetables. The stomach has been kuly said 

 to be the orga,n of digestion, because within it the aliment 

 transmitted to the oesophagus in a crude state undergoes its 

 primary and principal change in a process, the object of 

 which is to convert it into material for the support of the 

 body, and the distribution and transmission of those fluids 

 which sustain life and motion in its different parts. 



It must be obvious from the situation of the stomach, 

 that it is not only attended with great inconvenience and 

 pain, but also danger, to work a horse hard after a full 

 meal. Indeed many have sustained irreparable injury from 

 this cause. By the action of the diaphragm, the stomacli 

 must be displaced and forced back in the belly by every 

 contraction of the diaphragm or act of inspiration ; then in 

 proportion to the fulness of the stomach will be the weight 

 to be overcome in breathing, and hence the increased labour 

 of the diaphragm, and consequently the exhaustion of th j 

 animal. Besides, if the stomach is very full, and conse- 

 quently distended, its weight may prevent it from being 

 forced sufficiently far back to allow ample room for the 

 necessary volume of air which the animal requires during a 

 state of exertion. Hence the short, frequent, and oppressed 

 breathing during rapid action, and which too often destroys 

 the animal. On a journey, a horse should therefore be fed 

 moderately and more frequently than in a state of rest, 

 and care should be taken not to allow him too much 



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