38 Veterinary Elements. 



mastication easier. It has been stated that the muscles 

 of the cheeks, the teeth, tongue, lips, jaws and saliva all 

 have to do with the preparation of the food. The mouth 

 is opened by depressing (lowering) the lower jaw, closed 

 by raising it, the latter action calling for considerable 

 force, hence the reason for the strong muscles forming 

 the cheeks. The jaw motion is sideways in horses, cat- 

 tle and sheep, and is changed from side to side at will. 

 The tongue, lips and cheeks keep the food between the 

 teeth. The food is moistened by the saliva (spittle), a 

 fluid alkaline in reaction, containing a fernient-j%aZm, 

 which acts on the starch of the food, converting it into 

 sugar. This secretion (saliva) is the result of the work 

 of certain glands, namely, the parotid, a grape-like 

 structure situated just below the ears, with a duct run- 

 ning into the mouth at the fourth molar; submaxillary, 

 smaller glands lying between the jaws, often enlarged in 

 colt Distemper (strangles) and Glanders, the secretion 

 being emptied into the mouth at the barbs just under the 

 point of the tongue; sublingals, a number of very small 

 glands, as their name reveals, lie under the tongue. The 

 parotid gland is active only on the side on which chew- 

 ing is taking place. In the horse these glands work only 

 during mastication; in cattle they are secreting continu- 

 ally. Sight and odor of the food do not stimulate the 

 glands. 



Quantity of saliva secreted. The amount of saliva se- 

 creted in twenty-four hours is amazing. In the horse 

 about one hundred pints per hour when eating hay, one- 

 third less if oats are the food, just one-half the quantity 

 when on green fodder, and one-third if on roots; there- 



