62 HOESE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 



" Bernard was led to suggest that the submaxillary 

 gland ministers to the sense of taste, whilst the parotid 

 is connected with mastication, and the sublmgual with 

 deglutition. The size of the parotid in animals is pro- 

 portionate to the degree in which the mastication of 

 their food is performed. It is large in the horse, which 

 lives on comparatively dry food, less in carnivora, and 

 still less in the aquatic mammals, as the seal. It is 

 absent in birds which swallow their food whole." 

 (Carpenter.) The salivary glands of the horse are 

 larger than those of all other animals, except ruminants 



The presence of saliva in the food materially aids 

 its digestion in the stomach. " Among the experiments 

 are those of Spallanzani and Eeamur, who found that 

 food inclosed in the perforated tubes, and introduced 

 into the stomach of an animal, was more quickly 

 digested when it had been previously impregnated 

 with saliva than when it was moistened with water. 

 Dr. Wright also found that if the oesophagus [gullet] of 

 a dog is tied, and food mixed with water alone is placed 

 in the stomach, the food will remain undigested though 

 the stomach may secrete abundant acid fluid, but if 

 the same fluid is mixed with saliva, and the rest of 

 the experiment similarly performed, the food is readily 

 digested." (Kirkes.) 



Saliva is alkaline, and gastric juice acid. Pancreatic 

 juice and bile are both alkaline. This alternate 

 character seems to have been given to these fluids, so 

 as to regulate their action. 



The chief part of the starch contained in the horse's 

 food passes unchanged into his stomach; and the 

 action of the alkaline saliva, as a ferment in converting 



