ABDOMINAL REGIONS OF THE HORSE. 



405 



lining membrane is functional, whereas in that of the horse there is 

 a kind of foreshadowing, as it were, of the much greater subdivision of 

 the stomach characteristic of ruminants (oxen, sheep, goats, deer, &c.). 

 Anteriorly the stomach is in relation with the diaphragm and liver, 

 posteriorly with that part of the large intestine called the colon. On 

 the left side of its inferior border is the spleen, slung up in the great 

 omentum, a loose part of the glistening membrane which covers the 

 stomach externally. In animals in good condition the great omentum 

 is laden with a considerable amount of fat or flare. 



Cartilage of last 

 true rib (Sth) . . 



RIGHT 

 HYPOCHONDRIAC. 



Cartilage of last I 

 rib (18th) .* 



External angle 

 of ilium 



EIGHT 

 LUMBAR 



UMBILICAL. 



LEFT 

 HYPOCHONDRIAC. 



LEFT 

 LUMBAR. 



Fig. 94. The "Regions" of the Abdomen. 



There is one very important difference between the stomach of the 

 horse and that of the ox, sheep, pig, dog, and man, namely, the mode 

 in which the gullet expands into the stomach. In the horse, the gullet 

 enters the stomach perpendicularly and abruptly by a very narrow 

 aperture, which, though it allows material to pass into the stomach, 

 opposes a formidable obstacle to its passage backwards into the gullet. 

 In the other animals named the gullet opens gradually, like a funnel or 

 tun-dish, into the stomach. Hence, in the horse, vomiting is difficult, 

 if not impossible, and he is accordingly an exceedingly bad subject to 

 physic with emetics. 



The small intestine is a narrow tube coiled up, and slung in folds 

 of the mesentery, in an almost indescribable fashion. The peritoneum 

 is the name given to the smooth moist membrane which envelops, and 



