64 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



animals. And in explanation they give the proportion of 

 the stomachs, and the contents as constituting: 



" In oxen about 11> per cent, of the entire weight of the body. 

 " In sheep about 7> per cent, of the entire weight of the body. 

 " In pigs about l^per cent, of the entire weight of the body." 



" The intestines and their contents, on the other hand, 

 stand in the opposite relation. Thus, of the entire body, 

 these amounted : 



" In the pig to about 6} per cent. 

 " In the sheep to about 8)^ per cent. 

 " In the oxen to about 2% per cent." 



These facts, they think, explain how the ruminant can 

 take food with so large a proportion of indigestible woody 

 fibre, whilst the well-fed pig takes so large a proportion of 

 starch that in the latter the primary transformations are 

 supposed to occur " chiefly after leaving the stomach, and 

 more or less throughout the intestinal canal." 



And as time is a most important element in feeding, it 

 taking a given amount of food to support the life of the 

 animal and waste of its tissues, and as the pig can digest 

 and assimilate so much more food in a given time, in pro- 

 portion to its weight of body than the ox or sheep, it has 

 so much more nutriment to apply to an increase of its 

 weight, and this may be considered as an explanation of its 

 greater gain from a given amount of food. 



OTHER ORGANS ANNEXED TO THE DIGESTIVE CANAL. 



The most important of these are the two glands the 

 liver and. pancreas, which pour into the intestines the bile 

 and pancreatic juice also a glandiform organ, the spleen, 

 as to the office of which physiologists are in doubt. 



THE LIVER is the largest gland in the body, and is situ- 

 ated in the abdominal cavity, to the right of the dia- 

 phraghm and downward and adjacent to the stomach, and 

 partly in contact with them. The weight of a healthy 



