THE OMENTUM — THE SPLEEN. 277 



tliey spread out into innumerable minute branches, traversing 

 through every part of the liver. During the passage of the 

 blood through the liver, a fluid is separated from it, which 

 is called the bile. This is carried by the gall-duct, /, into 

 the duodenum, m, in such quantities as are required for 

 aiding digestion. The horse has no gall-bladder, and, 

 consequently, the bile flows into the duodenum, or first 

 intestine, m, immediately after it is separated from the 

 blood. As we have already mentioned, the stomach of the 

 horse is small in proportion to the quantity of food which 

 he must consume, and consequently must be much oftener 

 emptied ; and hence the necessity for uninterrunted flow of 

 bile to aid the process of digestion. 



The diseases connected with the liver are inflammation 

 and jaundice, treated of at page 89. 



THE OMENTUM, OR CAUL. 



This is a doubling of the peritoneum, investing the lower 

 portion of the stomach, to the great curvature of which, and 

 to that portion of the colon which crosses the spine to form 

 the sigmoid flexure, or last turn, it is attached. The omen- 

 tum is small in the horse, and seldom contains much adipose 

 matter. It is situated between the intestines and walls of 

 the abdomen, to prevent concussion and injury during rapid 

 movements of the horse. See fig. 2, c. 



THE SPLEEN. 



This is situated on the left side of the stomach, fig. 2, e, 

 and between it and the short ribs, with the hinder cartilages 

 of which its margin beneath corresponds, so that if the 

 belly were pierced from the left side posteriorly to the last 

 rib, this organ would escape injury. It is attached to the 

 left half of the great curvature of the stomach, but the 



