iS BLIND GUT; ITS USES. CONCRETIONS. GREAT GUT. 



should apprehend a larger dose (as eight drams, his favourite quantity) would 

 more inevitably have poisoned all the worms his horses may have had, of 

 whichsoever kind they might be ; but this mode, as will be perceived, though 

 more destructive of worms, would not have acted as a tonic restorative on the 

 stomach and intestines, like small repeated doses. 1, however, who am a man 

 of no fashion, generally have found those kind of attacks accompany a repeti- 

 tion of irregular feeding; that is to say, very little one day, very mu<;h ano- 

 ther; now all, now none; the attack varying in degree, and changing from 

 simple obstruction to the inflammatory, as the animal may or may not have 

 been allowed water with his food. 



49. To supply this deficiency, in some measure, does the caecum, or blind 

 g*ut, seem to have been placed at the termination of the small intestines. In 

 this second cavity digestion is supposed to be completed, much liquid being 

 found therein ; and we know that here, in a corner, termed its " appendix," 

 are frequently deposited hard matters, as earth, stones, and other substances, 

 little compatible with the purposes of nutrition (as noticed at sect. 46); but 

 whether these ever pass oft' by stool remains in doubt, and we are left to coi\- 

 clude that it is much less sensible than the other intestines. In size it may 

 be about thrice that of the stomach of the individual ; and it is placed near the 

 surface of the belly, lying on the left, about midway between the fore and hind 

 near leg. Here it is exposed to damagement from a variety of causes ; the 

 groom, while dressing him, often hits the horse here with the curry-con)b ; the 

 dealer tries whether his new purchase is a roarer by striking him hard with 

 his lash whip, whilst he holds up his head short; and I have frequently seen 

 one of the most noted jobbers and breakers in London terrify his "restive cus- 

 tomers" into obedience, by a kick of his foot skilfully placed on this part. 

 The facts are notorious; what is worse, they long remained uncorrected. The 

 consequence of all this hard usage is, that the coecum* loses its functions, 

 more or less, certain heavy particles are not expelled as they ought, but, re- 

 maining behind, attach to their sides some earthy particles of the food which 

 would otherwise pass into the colon, and the heat of the animal's body causes 

 them to become stones of great magnitude. Six or eight pounds in weight, 

 and nearly as many inches in diameter, are quoted as by no means uncom- 

 mon sizes, in certain parts of the country, where humanity is at so low an 

 ebb, and the police equally unmindful of their duty, as in the district of Lon 

 don before alluded to. 



50. The colon, or large gut, commences at the only orifice of the last-men- 

 tioned sac; then, turning underneath the small intestines, and proceeding for- 

 ward to near the stomach and liver, it turns about, and, in its course back- 

 ward, makes a great number of zig-zag turnings, by means of two ligaments 

 that run along its whole length, and coil it up. Such a shape, or rather no- 

 thape disposition of its folds, would inevitably obstruct the progress of its con- 

 bnts, but for the fore-mentioned double mention of its muscular coats, with 

 vhich it is furnished, as well as the smaller intestines. Being heavy, it is sus- 

 ^)ended the whole length of the horse?s hinder part, by a strong half transpa- 

 i'ent membrane (called mesentery), which being fastened to the bones of the 

 back, and hanging down in folds, or plaits, admits of the gut's filling up the 

 same from side to side, in the semi-globular manner we may perceive when 

 the animal is opened. But where the mesentery embraces the intestines the 

 tightest, as if to prev»nit the too ready escape of the food, there is placed along 

 the whole length of the depression, between the folds of the gut, a white vessel 



'The n.usclcs of the coecum tjeing stronger than any other part of the inte'jtlnes, are coiii- 

 pelled by the blow to contract fm-cibly, as do the hitercostal muscles of the lower ribs, whert-by 

 the air in the lungs is suddenly expelled, and, if he be aflecled, the home »roans m^ tiie air 

 v*wfi the upper part of ihe windpiix?. 



