QQ AMEEICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



operations of digestion. It is by far the largest gland in the 

 whole body. 



The liver is situated in close contact with the right side 

 of the diaphragm, and is divided into three lobes, with a 

 color peculiar to itself. Its structure is also most peculiar. 

 The bile is said to be secreted in small granules in this or- 

 gan, called acine, from their resemblance to the stone of cer- 

 tain small berries. But when the liver is cut open, we find 

 every part of it filled with little tubes, from which exudes 

 a thin, yellow fluid. This is evidently the bile, but, as yet, 

 without the bitter qualities, which it probably acquires after- 

 ward from the aeine. In most animals the bile is stored 

 away in a reservoir, called the gall-bladder, to be used as oc- 

 casion may require; but the horse has no gall-bladder, so 

 that the bile, as fast as it is formed, flows directly into the 

 small intestines. These it enters through the hepatic or bil- 

 iary duct, a few inches below the pyloric orifice. (See a, in 

 cut of intestines.) It is of the greatest importance in the 

 work of digestion. The whole system sufters, if its secretion 

 and flow are interrupted or retarded. Should they cease 

 altogether, not only would the blood be poisoned by its re- 

 tention, but the animal would presently starve for want of 

 nourishment. 



This organ is much less subject to disease in the horse 

 than in the other domestic animals, or in man. It is occa- 

 sionally the seat of inflanamation and some other affections, 

 whose symptoms, however, are always obscure. Sometimes, 

 where its functions are deranged, a condition is produced 

 much resembling that of jaundice in the human being. This 

 may be detected, without difficulty, by the yellow, pale color 

 of the membrane lining the nose, and of the lips, the mouth, 

 the tongue, and especially by the jaundiced appearance of 

 the eyes. 



THE PANCREAS. 



This is a gland placed between the stomach and the left 

 kidney, being what is commonly called the sweet-bread. It 



