HORSES. 



103 



portion to his size. He seems admirably calculated for 

 exertion, speed, and strength, on every emergency, full 

 or fasting; yet by hard driving, after over-fulness, he 

 is very liable to injury. If the harse had a large stom- 

 ach, it would render him clumsy and heavy, when full, 

 and it would press heavily on the lungs, and impede 

 inspiration. A part of the horse's stomach, like the 

 paunch of cattle, is insensible, and serves as a reservoir 

 for food, which he is .iften compelled to eat fast, and 

 without sufficient che\/ing, where it is macerated and 

 prepared for digestion, which process is partially per- 

 formed in the other parts, and then the food passes on 

 to the 



Intestines, in the first portion of which digestion is 

 continued, as it is larger than in other animals, and is 

 well adapted to digestion, by a thick, villous coat, with 

 numerous folds, like a second stomach. This process is 

 continued in the small intestines, and is not perfected 

 until the food has passed the larger intestines ; the first 

 of which, the colon, is very large in horses, compared with 

 that in cattle ; here the food is retained av/hile among 

 the deep cells, and further digested. It then enters the 

 ccBcum, which is large, and adapted to digestion by its 

 complicated cells. After its retention, and further diges- 

 tion here, it passes into the rectum, or last inlnstine, and is 

 discharged, a part still remaining undiges'^cd after pass- 

 ing through this long and complicated appnratus. 



PHYSIC. 



Sometimes it is necessary to physic horses, under 

 treatment for diseases, and in cases of a change of food 

 to that which is more astringent. Wher a horse comes 

 from grass to hard food, or from the coo-, opei\ air to a 

 heated stable, a dose or two of physic mf y be necessary 

 to prevent the tendency to inflammation com'r'juent on 

 sudden changes. A dose of physic is or en vvcful to a 

 horse that is becoming too lat, or has >urf< if, grease, 

 mange, old cough, worrns, or that is c t of condition 

 from inactivity Dl the digestive organs. But the peri- 

 odical physicking of horses, in the spri ^ and fall, as 



