102 CONSTRUCTION OF THE PIPE. [BOOK I. 



ligaments, and put in motion by small muscles for 

 producing the sounds expressed by the animal. 

 Next to the entrance these cartilages, which are 

 there strongest, form a curious kind of chamber, 

 termed epiglottis, over which is a lid or valve (the 

 glottis), placed there to defend the passage into 

 the air-tube, from the entrance of victuals, drink, 

 &c. For, upon the descent of any such substance, 

 this valve shuts down like a trap-door, and they 

 pass over it. No sooner, however, are they gone 

 past, than up rises the valve again, lying back to- 

 wards the mouth upon the palate ; and being very 

 large in the horse, accounts for the gulps with 

 which he takes in water, and his peculiar mode of 

 feeding. For the same reason it is, that the horse 

 breathes only through his nostrils, between which 

 and the wind-pipe there is a close affinity in some 

 diseases (as the glanders) and accounts for his in- 

 capacity for bellowing like the ox, or vomiting 

 like man. At this spot it is, that certain savages 

 in human shape press the finger and thumb with 

 brutal force, in order, as 'tis called, " to cough 

 him." No certainty, however, lies in this imagined 

 test of his wind ; for, although a thoroughly broken- 

 winded horse will not cough, yet one which is par- 

 tily affected will do so in most instances ; whilst the 

 soundest horses do most obstinately resist the 

 coughing ; and in a few, the circular cartilages so 

 well defend the muscle, as to defy the prevalent 

 inhuman effort, and seem to rebuke the ignorant 

 attempt " to prove the goodness of his wind." 



