MR. DICK ON COOKING FOOD FOR HORSES. 
677 
and that that is the case we have reason to believe, first, from 
the circumstance that the coarser portions of the food which are 
taken into the stomach of the horse are found after death to be 
lodged in this part of the stomach ; and further, that, in other 
animals, such as the ox and sheep, this process is still more evi¬ 
dent. In these animals there is not only the grinding down of 
the food, and mixing with the saliva, but afterwards it is passed 
into the first stomach, the paunch, where the food is mixed with 
the secretions of that viscus, and separated into the coarser and 
finer portions by a kind of eccentric motion—which I can com¬ 
pare to nothing better than the motion given to coffee in the 
newly invented coffee-roaster, or the tossing of corn in a sieve to 
clean it from dust, the motion certainly not so rapid, but the ef¬ 
fect analogous—the finer parts being passed into the second sto¬ 
mach, and on to the third, while the coarser, after all this cooking 
and tossing, is again sent up from the stomach to be still further 
comminuted, and is thus passed into the third stomach, to un¬ 
dergo farther preparation, before it passes on (in the ruminating 
animals) to the true digesting stomach. If this process is not 
completed, as is frequently the case in the horse, from the man¬ 
ner lie is frequently driven before the digestion is completed, or 
from other causes, it is found that the food which is not sufficiently 
broken down, is not completely acted on by the organs of diges¬ 
tion, and which is most obviously the case with regard to grains ; 
and the animal, in a relative proportion, derives so much the less 
nourishment from it. For I cannot agree with those who suppose 
that if seeds or grains are taken into the stomach the animal de¬ 
rives nourishment from it. The nutritious matter is a tangible 
substance: it is palpably abstracted from the food, and we can 
trace it through the lacteal vessels into the circulation ; and I 
am therefore the more surprised to find any one suppose it could 
yield nutriment unless being digested, more especially so emi¬ 
nent a physiologist and pathologist as Dr. Mason Good, who, in 
the Physiological Proem of the first volume of his Study of Me¬ 
dicine, page 11, second edition, states, that “ there are many sub¬ 
stances which are so hard and intractable as to sustain the ac¬ 
tion of the digestive organs without any other change than that 
of being softened, or otherwise partially affected, instead of being 
entirely subverted and reduced to chyme or chyle. Such espe¬ 
cially are the seeds of plants: and it is well worth observing, 
though it has not yet been noticed by physiologists, that while 
birds or other animals derive from this kind of food a very valua¬ 
ble nutriment, it passes through them without being completely 
digested. The seeds themselves that are thus acted upon, de¬ 
rive also a reciprocal benefit, in many instances, and are hereby 
VOL. V. 4 Y 
