86 THEORY OF FEEDING. 



As a rule, the cause of such digestive disturbance is exercise 

 or water given too soon after the horse has had a full feed. 

 Water in such a case is apt to carry the food out of the 

 stomach into the small intestine ; because water stays only 

 a very short time in the stomach on its way to the caecum. 



The movements of the muscular coat of the stomach cause 

 the food contained* in that organ to become saturated with 

 gastric juice, and to become slowly carried towards the open- 

 ing from the stomach into the small intestine. The muscular 

 coat of the intestines gives their contents a wormlike motion, 

 ivhich enables them to expel the residue of food onwards. 



DIGESTION IN THE INTESTINES. 



The process of digestion is performed much more fully 

 in the intestines than in the stomach. When food leaves the 

 stomach and enters the small intestine, it becomes mixed with 

 bile and pancreatic juice, which flow into the intestine by a 

 common opening. The pancreatic juice of the horse contains, 

 according to Leuret and Lassaigne, about 99.1 per cent, of 

 water. Pancreatic juice possesses ferments which respectively 

 dissolve nitrogenous matter and starch, and which split up 

 fat in such a manner that the fat can be readily absorbed. 

 Bunge states that " the pancreas is the digestive gland 

 par excellence'' 



Halliburton considers that the chief use of bile is to aid 

 the pancreatic juice in the digestion of fat. The results of 

 many experiments (see Colin's Physiologie Comparte) 

 suggest the conclusion that bile is much more concerned 

 in the absorption of fat than is pancreatic juice. It is 

 doubtful if bile has any antiseptic power ; for it cannot 

 prevent even itself from decomposing. When the secretion 

 of bile is deficient in quantity, the intestines during digestion 

 contain a large amount of unabsorbed fat which encloses a 

 portion of the nitrogenous matter of the food and thus 



