MANUAL OF CATTLE-i^EEBING. 61 



and with water. Tliej ai^e largely (not entirely) taken up 

 bj tlie blood-vessels of the btoiriaeli. Some of the pep- 

 tones are also resorbed in the stomach, though not into the 

 blood-vessels but into the lymphatics, but a large part of 

 fhem, along with the portions of the food not yet acted on, 

 leaves the stomach through a'valve, called the jjylmniSj at 

 its low^er end (/, fig. 2), and passes into the intestines 

 ig, fig. 2). 



Intestinal Digestion. — The hiiestines form a long tube, 

 folded and bent many times upon itself, which, together with 

 the stomach, liver, and a few^ otber organs, fills the cavity 

 of the abdomen. 



Its length varies very considerably in different animals. 

 In carnivorous animals, wiiicli live on easilv-fliffebted and 

 concentrated food, it is from four to si\ times the length of 

 the body ; while in herbivorous animals, which feed on vo- 

 luminous fodder, it is very much longer, being ten to twelve 

 times the length of the body in the horse, twenty times in 

 tlie OA, and twenty-five to twenty-six times in the goat. It 

 is divided into two principal parts — the small intestine, be- 

 ginning with the stomach and forming about f to | of the 

 whole length, and the large intestine, ending with the anus. 



The movement of the food through the intestines is 

 accomplished by a peculiar worm-like motion of the latter, 

 resembling that of the stomach and called the peristaltic 

 motion. It is produced by the invohmtary muscles of the 

 intestines, and effects both a forward movement of the 

 food and a mixture of it with the various digestive fluids 

 to whose action it is subjected. 



Chief among these digestive fluids are the bile and the 

 pancreatic juice. 



The hRi\ or gall, of the herbivora is a dark yellowish- 

 green liquid, secreted by the liver, the largest gland in the 



