96 THE HOKSE AND ITS DISEASES. 



with the wants of the constitution, and hence it is that 

 food taken in invigorates before it can be digested, and 

 hence the propriety of giving but little food, and that 

 frequently, when we travel quick, that we roay not 

 overrate the power of the stomach, and which caution 

 is more particularly requisite in weak-constitutioned 

 horses. That this sympathy between the stomach and 

 the body is great, we know by the prostration of strength 

 that is felt on an empty stomach, and which cannot arise 

 from inanition only, but from sympathy also ; for, let a 

 tried horse hear the hounds, and he will go on through 

 £i long chase with alacrity, but when the melody of the 

 dogs is over, the attention is no longer engaged, and the 

 sympathy returns. It is not improbable that a sufficient 

 degree of tenison in the stomach is necessary to give it 

 its proper energy, and without which it becomes painful, 

 hence, water in which there is little nutriment will 

 give tone by distention, and prevent for a time the sen- 

 sation of hunger ; stimulated, therefore, by this sensation, 

 animals are induced to take in such particular food as 

 their organs are equal to the assimilation of, and to 

 which they are directed both by instinct and by taste. 



The carnivorous tribes are prone to take in flesh by 

 their love of it, and they have organs capable for the 

 assimilation of it — the horse has a disposition to take in 

 grain, for he has a mechanism calculated thereto — the 

 ass, the rat, and the mouse likewise. The gastric juice 

 is the powerful solvent by which this assimilation is 

 effected, but it appears not to possess any sensible 

 chemical qualities. 



We have, therefore, every reason to suppose that no 

 chemical agency effects this process, but that it is truly 

 a living one. Though the powers of this juice are great, 

 yet life has a particular power to resist its action, hence 

 bots, and other worms are not, while living within the 

 stomach, digested, but when dead, they become dis- 

 solved like matter. A horse, as an animal destined for 

 great exertions, needs great support, hence he eats veiy 



