INTRODUCTION. 17 



the caecum, which will contain at least four gallons of 

 water. It is thrown into cells like the colon which 

 are plainly designed for the same purpose, the reten- 

 tion of the aliment. The colon, which is of an enor- 

 mous size in the horse, will usually contain about 

 twelve .gallons of fluid. Here a provision is made for 

 the yet imperfectly digested food. The colon is 

 curiously puckered into a great many deep cells, in 

 which the food is for a while detained. When the 

 contents of the stomach, after having passed through 

 all this complicated apparatus, have at length reached 

 the rectum, or last intestine, a very small portion of 

 refuse will remain, and that is evacuated as dung. 



The Liver. — Two fluids enter the duodenum by 

 the same small orifice, in order to contribute to the 

 process of digestion. The one is called the pancreatic 

 juice, and is in nothing different from that which has 

 been described in cattle; but the bile in the horse 

 comes immediately from the liver, instead of any por- 

 tion of it passing into a gall-bladder. The horse has 

 no gall-bladder : his stomach is small ; it must, there- 

 fore, be oftener replenished ; the food must be often er 

 passing out of it ; and there can be no necessity for 

 the gall being detained in any reservoir for use at a 

 distant time. 



There is nothing peculiar about any of the other 

 contents of the belly, and therefore the diseases of the 

 animal Will be immediately considered. 



