CATTLE. 



siderable power is, occasionally at least, called into exercise to propel 

 the blood along the veins. All the veins, however, are not under 

 the influence of these muscles. The large veins of the chest and 

 belly are out of the reach of muscular pressure, and are destitute of 

 this valvular apparatus, but they are acted upon by a more powerful 

 principle. 



The heart has been described as an elastic muscle. It has scarcely 

 closed by the stimulus of tlie organic nerves, when it expands 

 ao-ain by its own inherent elasticity ; and that important principle, by 

 the influence of which the water follows the sucker in the common 

 pump — the pressure of the atmosphere — acts here, too, and the 

 cavities of the heart are filled again as soon as they expand ; and 

 this living pump would work on while there was fluid in circula- 

 tion. Thus the circulation is maintained by the action of the hearty 

 while the blood is passing through the arteiies ; by the musculai 

 power of the capillaries, while it permeates those little vessels ; and 

 by the pressure of the muscles and the valvular apparatus of the 

 veins, in some part of its course through them ; and by atmospheric 

 pressure, through their whole extent. 



VARICOSE VEINS. 



Varicose tumors in the cow seldom appear, except in the veins of 

 the udder, and in the neighborhood of joints that have suffered even 

 more than usual from the tumors of these parts, to which cattle are 

 so liable. An old cow that has been a superior milker, frequently 

 has the veins of the teals permanently enlaiged. No application will 

 take down the swelhng, which, however, is rarely of any serious in- 

 convenience. The veins of the teats are sometimes much enlarged 

 under Garget. Warm fomentations, in order to abate the general 

 inflammation of the bag, will aff"ord most relief. 



THE CHEST. 



The form of the chest is of much consequence in the ox. There 

 are important offices to be performed by the viscera of the chest, 

 which demand constant energetic action, over which the mind has 

 no control, and where all depends on the form and extent of the 

 thoracic cavity. The blood must be purified, and it must be circu- 

 lated through the frame, and that with a rapidity and perfection 

 which must not know a monient's intermission. 



The chest consists of 13 ribs on either side, or 26 in the whole. 

 Of these 8 on each side ai-e directly connected with the sternum, 

 or breast bi)ne, and are termed true ribs ; the othei- five are attached 

 10 cartilao-es, which are linked together, and also connected with the 

 Bternum in an indirect manner — these are termed /a /se ribs. 



The true ribs are long, large, thick, and far apart from each other; 



