140 GREAT GUT, ITS COURSE. [BOOK I. 



expelled as they ought, but remaining behind, at- 

 tach to their surface some earthy particles of the 

 food, which would otherwise pass into the colon, 

 and the heat of the animal's body causes these con- 

 cretions to become stones of great magnitude. Six 

 or eight pounds, in weight, and nearly as many 

 inches in diameter, are quoted as by no means 

 uncommon sizes, in certain parts of the country 

 where humanity is at a low ebb, and the police 

 unmindful of their duty in this respect. 



50. The colon, or large gut, commences at the 

 only orifice of the last-mentioned sac ; then, turn- 

 ing underneath the small intestines, and proceeding 

 forward under the stomach and liver, it turns about, 

 cfnd, in its course backward, makes a great number 

 of zig-zag turnings, by means of a membranous 

 ligature that runs along its whole length, and coils 

 it up. Such a shape, or rather no-shape disposi- 

 tion of its folds, would inevitably obstruct the pro- 

 gress of its contents, but for the fore-mentioned 

 double motion of its fibrous coats, with which the 

 colon is furnished, as well as the smaller intestines. 

 Being heavy, it is suspended the whole length of 

 the horse's hinder part, by a strong half-trans- 

 parent membrane {called peritonaeum) 3 which being 

 fastened to the bones of the loins, and hanging 

 down in folds, or plaits, admits of the guts' filling 

 up the same from side to side, in the semi-globular 

 manner we may perceive when the animal is first 

 opened. But, where the mesentery embraces the 

 intestines the tightest, as if to prevent the too 



