54 HOUSE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 



intestine, it becomes mixed with bile and pancreatic juice 

 which flow from a common duct. The secretion from 

 the pancreas (sweetbread) is very similar in its nature 

 to saliva, whose action, in converting starch and cane 

 sugar into grape sugar, it completes. It also, by vir- 

 tue of its alkaline nature, makes an emulsion, or soap, 

 with the fat contained in the chyme, which consequently 

 assumes a white appearance, and is then termed chyle. 

 The particles of fat are thus split up into a very fine 

 state of division, so as to be readily absorbed. The 

 bile acts as a natural purge, the bowels becoming con- 

 stipated when it is deficient in quantity ; it also, by 

 reason of its antiseptic properties, prevents decomposi- 

 tion of the ingesta, prior to their being expelled. In 

 the absence of bile, deleterious gasses are evolved in the 

 intestines, and are absorbed into the system, to the 

 detriment of the health of the animal ; in such cases the 

 dung has a foul smell. Bile is constantly being excret- 

 ed by the liver. We find that certain of the higher 

 animals, such as man, are provided with a gall-bladder, 

 into which this fluid collects, to be poured out into the 

 intestines during the process of digestion, which is, in 

 these cases, one intended by nature to take place at cer- 

 tain intervals. The horse, however, possess no gall-blad- 

 der, which fact clearly indicates that he should be, more 

 or less, constantly supplied with food. The small capa- 

 city of his stomach and large size of his intestines 

 point to the small thing. 



On leaving the small intestine, which is about 72 feet 

 long, the food becomes collected into a capacious cul-de- 

 sac the caecum formed by the large intestine, whose 



