256 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERV 



PLATE VIII, Fig. 5. 



This gives a general view of the appearance of the 

 belly with the intestines, as they are presented without 

 any of them being removed, the skin of the abdomen 

 only cut open and thrown back so as to expose the 

 viscera. 



<7, a^ a^ a. The colon, which in the horse is a gut of enormous 

 size, being the longest and most capacious of the large 

 intestines. Such is its capacity, that it will contain 

 about twelve gallons of water. The course and 

 figure of this intestine are peculiar. It begins at the 

 head of the colon, and expands into a cavity larger 

 in dimensions than the stomach itself; it then 

 begins to contract, and continues to do so gradually 

 until it has completed its second convolution round 

 the caecum, or blind gut, where its dimensions are 

 not more than one of the small intestines. 



h. The caecum, or blind gut, which is the first sub- 

 division of the large intestines, originating in a 

 large capacious receptacle, called the ccecum caput 

 coll, or blind head of the colon, from which it 

 extends downward and terminates in a blind 

 extremity. The caecum differs from all the other 

 intestines in having but one opening into it, so 

 that all the substances which enter into it must 

 reascend into the caput coli, in order to be carried 

 through the intestine. The exterior parts are 

 braced by three longitudinal bands, and puckered 

 b}^ them into three sets of cells internally, which 

 will be better understood by a reference to Plate ix, 

 fig. I. 



c. A portion of the mesentery. It is a duplicature of the 

 peritoneum, which bears this appellation. The 

 colon is attached in like manner to the bone by a 

 production of the same membrane, called the 

 mesocolon, and the rectum is kept in its place by a 

 similar reflection, called the mesorectum. 



d, e. Are portions of the small intestine. 

 /. The beginning of the colon. 



