114 



The Feeding of Animals 



being swallowed, is not returned to the mouth, but is 

 very soon brought under the action of the gastric juice 

 without so long -continued pre- 

 liminary preparation by remas- 

 tication and trituration. For 

 this reason the horse fails to 

 digest coarse fodders so com- 

 pletely as the ox does. Besides, 

 the stomachs of the horse and 

 pig are too small to admit of 

 so large an ingestion of hay or 

 similar material, as is the case 



Fig. 2. Stomach of horse. .., . . ., 



with ruminants of similar size. 



B, o?sophaeral attachment. 



A, pylork- end of stomach, with In all Species, llOWCVer, the 

 beginning of small intestine. chemical ^STllt of Stomach 



digestion is essentially the same, i. e., the protein is in 

 part changed to peptones. Fig. 2. 



THE INTESTINES 



The most extended portion of the alimentary canal, 

 though not the most capacious in all cases, is the in- 

 testines. They consist of a tube differing in size in its 

 various portions, which begins with the stomach and 

 ends with the anus. This tube is not a straight passage 

 between the points named, but presents curves and 

 folds, so that when straightened out it appears sur- 

 prisingly long. Its average length with the ox is given 

 as 187 feet, sheep 107 feet, horse 98 feet, and hog 

 77 feet, lengths which are from twelve to twenty - 

 seven times that of the body of the animal. The intes- 



