274 
MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 
water, which ought also to be given in small and frequent 
quantities. 
It would seem that Nature had wisely foreseen, that a? 
the horse was destined to be the servant of man, and tc 
render him more valuable and fitted for the labour that 
would be required of him, it became necessary to diminish 
the inconvenience and danger from pressure which would 
necessarily accompany a large stomach, that the animal 
should have one proportioned to the situation he was 
destined to fill in creation. The great bulk and conse¬ 
quent expenditure of his frame, require a large quantity 
of food to be consumed to afford nutriment. Yet the 
stomach is wisely formed small, to prevent pressure as much 
as possible ; and in addition it has the power of rapidly 
decomposing the food, which speedily descends to a portion 
of the intestine remote from the diaphragm, where the 
pressure of the food cannot inconvenience him. Indeed 
the whole of his digestive system is quick, and consequently 
his food passes rapidly through him ; otherwise life never 
could be sustained, considering the small proportional nutri¬ 
ment contained in the ordinary food of the horse. 
We shall now proceed to describe the several parts of the 
stomach. The situation which the stomach occupies in the 
abdomen will be seen by a reference to plate ix. fig. 2, b; 
and its general form and several parts are represented in 
plate viii. fig. 4. 
a, a. The mucous or villous portion of the stomach in which the 
food is chiefly digested, or converted into a soft and pulpy 
substance. It extends over that portion of the stomach left 
unoccupied by the cuticular part. It is of a yellowish cast, 
inclining to red in some places. 
b t by Is that portion of the stomach which is covered by cuticle or 
insensible skin. This cuticular substance is of the same 
nature as the lining of the oesophagus, with which, indeed, at 
