10 DIGESTION AND FOOD. 



room, or fungiform ; some that are conical, and others that 

 are fungiform, but situated in recesses, and termed papillce 

 circumvallatcu. (See Figs. 3 and 4.) It is by the latter 

 papillae that we can at once determine if a tongue, separated 

 from the body, belongs to horse or ox. There are other distin- 

 guishing marks, and it may be of some service, not only to 

 enumerate them, but to show their contrast, as in the sub- 

 joined engravings: inasmuch, as it is supposed that horses' 

 tongues find their way into victuallers' shops, whereas they 

 should not be used as human food, though, in the vast majority 

 of instances, no injury would accrue therefrom. The tongue 

 of the horse (see Fig. 3) is long, with a well-marked middle 

 depression, or line, called the raphe, and a broad flattened 

 free end. On either side of the middle line, towards the root 

 of the tongue, is a very large compound circumvallate eminence 

 or papilla. In the ox, the tongue is pointed, deep, and with 

 two diverging rows of papillae on the base of the tongue, as 

 seen in Fig. 4. Each row numbers from eleven to thirteen 

 papillae. 



The selection of food is facilitated by the method of 

 gathering it observed amongst the vegetable feeders. The 

 horse has a sensitive upper lip, susceptible of active move- 

 ment and a collecting power. The nose serves to indicate 

 that which the lips should leave, and in some cases, the sense 

 of touch possessed by the latter, affords the animal an indica- 

 tion of that which should be left and that which should be 

 taken. The lips in the horse carry the food between the 

 incisor teeth, so that it may be firmly held, whilst, by an 

 active jerk of the head, grass is cut, hay pulled from the rack, 

 or branches severed. 



If the incisor teeth are malformed, so as to prevent the 

 proper cutting of grass, a horse may be starved even on a 

 luxuriant pasture. The malformation most commonly in- 



