68 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



devoid of transverse furrows at its extremity. It is simple, and 

 oblong in shape, and there is a large patch of follicles in the 

 recess of the csecum. Its blind ending is blunt, rounded and 

 directed backwards, and it lies freely in the abdominal cavity. 

 The other extremity, having received the insertion of the ileum, 

 is continuous with the colon, which is likewise destitute of bands 

 and furrows. The colon soon becomes much narrower, and then, 

 preserving about the same diameter for the rest of its extent, it 

 is arranged in an irregularly elliptic coil situated between the 

 folds of the mesentery. It is twisted spirally, and finally crosses 

 over the duodenum. Thus we see there is no such distinct 

 demarcation betwixt the great and floating colon as there is in 

 the case of the horse. 



Coming now to the large intestine, we find that its total length 

 in the case of the ox, beginning from the caecum and ending at 

 the rectum, is about 36 feet; but its capacity is considerably less 

 than that of the horse. 



The Liver of the ox is very thick, and is situated in the right 

 hypochondriac region. It has two large lobes, right and left, 

 together with a small spigelian lobe and a small quadrate lobe 

 situated supero-posteriorly. It is provided with a pear-shaped 

 gall-bladder attached above, and lying upon its posterior surface. 

 The gall-bladder has three coats — serous, muscular, and mucous 

 —and it is continuous with the biliary ducts. The cystic duct 

 extends from the gall-bladder almost to the transverse fissure, 

 where it joins the hepatic duct. In the ox this latter duct 

 enters the duodenum singly in advance of the pancreatic duct, 

 being guarded at its orifice by a valve-like doubling of the 

 mucous membrane. In the smaller ruminants there is a ductus 

 communis choledochus. 



The liver of the giraffe, like that of the camel, is small, flat, 

 and light, and it weighs about 6 lbs. The spigelian lobe is 

 small. In all ruminants the liver is confined to the right hypo- 

 chondrium and the middle epigastric region, and in these animals 

 it presents a slight split in the middle. In the whale, in which 

 animal the body is in a large degree inflexible, the liver is, as is 

 naturally to be expected, undivided. In human beings, likewise, 

 the liver is slightly divided, for in them also, as compared with 

 animals, there is but little movement of one part of the body upon 

 another. On the other hand, the liver of the cat is very much 



