THE HORSE AND ITS DISEASES. 97 



largely, and yet as his speed renders it necessary that 

 this viscera should be compact, so some peculiarity, either 

 in form or economy, might be expected, and which 

 speciality consists in having the food taken in, but very 

 slightly digested in the stomach ; but this process began 

 here, is further carried on, and completed in the intes- 

 tines. In the horse, the stomach is not such a general 

 organ of sympathy as in man, and some other animals. 

 In the human, on the contrary, it sympathizes largely 

 with the constitution — in illness, it seldom feels hunger 

 in us, and in most diseases it is nauseated ; the mind 

 influences it likewise — the efl'ect of bad news, unpleasant 

 sights, etc., on tlie stomach, are universally known, and 

 every day met with. In the horse, this is by no means 

 so evident, nevertheless, there are some sympathetic 

 eifects observed between this organ and the constitution, 

 it has the sympathy of hunger in common with other 

 animals — in illness, the appetite is lost, though usually 

 not in so great a degree as in the human. Instances 

 of sympathy exist in mares, when under the effects of 

 oestrum, i.e.^ when they are horseing, they will seldom 

 eat well. 



The stomach has also a diseased sympathy, for sick 

 horses will often eat, and die with the food in their 

 mouths. 



The Arteries. 



The vessels of the body are divided into arteries, 

 veins, and absorbents, and except the hair, hoofs, and 

 epideimis, there is, perhaps, no part of the body without 

 them. 



The arteries' are canals, whose origin is either from 

 the aorta or pulmonary arteries, which are the only two 

 original arterial trunks in the body ; considered generally, 

 they are long membraneous canals, which gradually be- 

 come smaller as they proceed from the heart towards 

 the extremities. They appear to have three coats, and 

 it is not improbable that the existence of these in 



