A complete system of farriery, and veterinary medicine : containi[n]g a compendium of the veterinary art, or an accurate description of the diseases of horses, and their mode of treatment; the anatomy and physiology of the foot, and the principles and practice of shoeing. With observations on stable management, feeding, exercise, and condition / by James White ... newly arranged by the publishers, in which are introduced the late and important treatises upon the glanders, farcy, staggers, inflammation of the lungs and bowels, the prevention and treatment of lameness, and precautions to be observed in purchasing horses. By the same author. Illustrated by eighteen elegant plates.

  • White, James, -1825
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A complete system of farriery, and veterinary medicine : containi[n]g a compendium of the veterinary art, or an accurate description of the diseases of horses, and their mode of treatment; the anatomy and physiology of the foot, and the principles and practice of shoeing. With observations on stable management, feeding, exercise, and condition / by James White ... newly arranged by the publishers, in which are introduced the late and important treatises upon the glanders, farcy, staggers, inflammation of the lungs and bowels, the prevention and treatment of lameness, and precautions to be observed in purchasing horses. By the same author. Illustrated by eighteen elegant plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    [ 12] The intestinal tube ig not, throughout its whole extent, of a. uniform size: that part next the stomach is rather small, and con- tinues for about twenty yards nearly of the same diameter: it then becomes very large, but again diminishes before its termi- nation at the anus. Anatomists, in describing the intestinal canal, divide it into two parts, viz: the small and the large intestines: these are sub- divided, the former into duodenum, jejunumt and ileum; the latter into ccccum, colon and rectum. All the internal surface of the intestinal tube is covered with a mucous substance, for the purpose of defending it from the action of acrimonious bodies. The various convolutions of the intestines are held together by a membrane called mesentery, which not only serves this purpose, but affords also a bed for the lacteals, or those small vessels by which the nutritious parts of the food are conveyed to the heart, to be converted into blood. Before we proceed to a particular description of these vessels, it will be necessary to explain the process of nutrition. When food is taken into the mouth, it is broken down by the teeth, and so mixed with saliva, as to be in a proper state for entering the stomach: it is then, by the united action of the tongue and muscles of the throat, forced into the oesophagus, whence it passes into the stomach. In this organ it undergoes a considerable alteration; for here Nature has provided a curious liquid called gastric juice, which has the property of dissolving every thing that is taken into the stomach, and of converting it into a soft pulpy mass, of a uniform and homogeneous ap- pearance. When the food has been thus altered, the mass is forced by a contraction of the stomach into the duodenum, or first part of the intestinal canal. This mass, however, does not consist wholly of nutritive parts, or such as are fit for the formation of blood; and another operation is necessary, in order to separate them from such as are useless: this seems to bo effected by the bile and pancreatic juice.* There is a peculiarity, however, in the stomach and intestines of the horse, which it is proper here to describe. The stomach of the horse is small in proportion to his general bulk, and has nearly half of its inner surface covered with a strong insensible membrane of a white color. This is the part to which bolts are generally attached, which explains why these worms so often exist in the stomach without doing any mischief. This insen- sible membrane, is supposed also to enable the stomach to press upon the solid food it may contain, and assist the gastric juice * This opinion has boon proved by the experiments of Mr. Astley Coopor, lecturer on anatomy and surgery, and assistant lurgeon of St. Thoma'* hospital.