PRACTICAL HINTS. 



295 



gestion, favors absorption — in fact, to use a trivial expression, "It makes the bits 

 go down." These are not the only results of the new energy imparted to the func- 

 tions which we have studied, all of which concur in the accomplishment of this spe- 

 cial one; it ^exercises a special influence upon the muscular fiber of the coats 

 of the stomach and the intestines. These viscera may be considered as fairly 

 suspended in the abdominal cavity, where they are barely held and limited in their 

 movements by the folds of the peritoneum. Each shock from the horse shakes 

 them and makes them roll, as it were, upon each other, and causes the changes in the 

 relations of the convolutions of the intestines. These shocks and knocks and rub- 

 bings act as a mechanical excitant upon the muscular fiber, which in consequence 

 contracts with more energy, preserving, however, the peculiar character >of the fiber- 

 cells'; that is, of contracting slowly and successively, the action of the fiber being in- 

 creased and the peristaltic contractions acquiring more power, there results from it 

 a more intimate mixture of the juices and aliments in the stomach, a more perfect 

 , ehymification of the food, and a more prompt and complete absorption of matters al- 

 ready digested ; and, lastly, all those which have as yet escaped the process are 

 brought into the portions of the intestines where their metamorphosis is effected. 



Fie. 364.— An Ideal of the Family Horse. 



