Digestion. 115 



received oh lbs. of hay, which he took two hours to eat ; 

 at the end of that time he was destroyed, and the stomach 

 contained 22 lbs.; thus in two hours he had digested 

 3-3 lbs. Another horse received oh lbs. hay, and was de- 

 stroyed three hours from the time of commencing to feed ; 

 in the stomach was found ]-54 lbs. ; in three hours he had 

 digested 396 lbs. ; in the third hour (during which time he 

 was not feeding), judging from the first experiment he had 

 digested only '66 lb., whereas the previous rate of digestion 

 for the first two hours was at the rate of V65 lbs. per hour. 

 To return to our previous statement, when the animal is no 

 longer feeding the rate of digestion at once becomes re- 

 duced, and it is probable that several hours must elapse, 

 assuming no further food be given, before the stomach 

 completely empties itself. This period may be fifteen, 

 eighteen, twenty-four to thirty-six hours. 



I starved a horse for twenty-four hours, and at 6 a.m. 

 gave him G lbs. of dried grass ; he was destroyed at 3 p.m., 

 and the stomach still contained 2h lbs. ; in nine hours, 

 therefore, only Sh lbs. had been digested. In another 

 observation carried out under similar conditions, only 1 lb. 

 had been digested in four hours and three-quarters. Of 

 4 lbs. hay given only 1 lb. 11 ozs. was digested in six hours ; 

 of 3h lbs. hay, 2^ lbs. were digested in five and a half hours, 

 and of 4< lbs. hay, 2 lbs. 12 ozs. were digested in five hours. 



Colin's elaborate researches furnish us with very complete 



data on the question of hay digestion in the horse. He fed 



fourteen horses on hay, and destroyed two of them at regular 



intervals ; each animal received 5 "5 lbs. of hay, and digestion 



was counted from the time they were fed. Here are the 



results : 



Amount of Hay given, 5*5 Lbs. 



8—2 



