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MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 
it from the acrimony of the saline and other matters con¬ 
tained in the urine ; this mucous matter being perpetually 
washed off from the surface of the inner coat by the urine, 
is kept constantly renewed, and it is sometimes voided in 
considerable quantities. When this is the case, it may be 
apprehended that the urine is unusually acrid, or that 
calculi or other irritable matter is within the bladder. 
About an inch before the cervix or neck of the bladder, in 
the sides of the bag, the orifices of the ureters are placed, 
which enter the bladder in an oblique direction, and prevent 
any reflux of the urine at the time the bag is contracting, 
and which gives them the property of valves. The bladder 
terminates in a small neck, round which is a powerful 
muscle, which keeps the passage closed and retains the 
urine until the animal wishes to expel it; or when the 
bladder contains a certain quantity of fluid, the muscular 
coat contracts, and, the lungs being filled with air, the 
diaphragm is rendered convex towards the intestines, and 
they are by that means pressed upon the bladder, and by 
their united powers the fluid is forced through the sphincter 
muscle at the neck of the bladder and escapes. We have 
described the disorders to which the bladder is liable at 
page 93. * 
THE INTESTINES. 
The intestines are cylindrical tubes of very unequal 
dimensions, fortning one continued but convoluted canal 
from the lower orifice of the stomach to the anus, in which 
the process of digestion, begun in the stomach, is completed 
and ultimately expelled in the form of faeces. 
The abdominal viscera, taken collectively, cannot be said 
to occupy any particular region of the belly, for they are 
spread chiefly over the lower portions of it: immediately 
