day; or, if there is any uncertainty as to its being taken in that way, it
should be mixed with sirup, so as to form a paste, and smeared well back on
the animal's tongue with a flat wooden spoon: Carbonate of iron, 3 ounces;
powdered gentian, 3 ounces; powdered nitrate of potassium, 3 ounces; mix
and divide into 12 powders. The administration of purgatives which promote
a watery discharge from the mucous surface of the bowels also tends, by
diminishing the serum of the blood, to bring about absorption and a gradual
removal of the fluid contained in the abdomen. Large doses should not be
given, but moderate ones should be administered morning and night, so as to
produce a laxative effect on the bowels for several days. To attain this
end the following may be used: Sulphate of soda, 8 ounces; powdered ginger,
half an ounce; to be mixed in 2 quarts of tepid water and given at one
dose.

* * * * *

DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

PLATE I. Position of the first stomach (rumen or paunch) on the left side.
The area inclosed by heavy dotted lines represents the rumen; the
elongated, shaded organ is the spleen resting upon it. The skin and muscles
have been removed from the ribs to show the position of the lungs and their
relation to the paunch.

PLATE II. Stomach of ruminants.

Fig. 1. Stomach of a full-grown sheep, 1/5 natural size (after Thanhoffer,
from R. Meade Smith's Physiology of Domestic Animals): _a_, rumen, or first
stomach; _b_, reticulum, or second stomach; _c_, omasum, or third stomach;
_d_, abomasum, or fourth stomach; _e_, esophagus, or gullet, opening into
the first and second stomachs; _f_, opening of fourth stomach into small
intestine; _g_, opening of second stomach into third; _h_, opening of third
stomach into fourth.

The lines indicate the course of the food in the stomachs. The incompletely
masticated food passes down the esophagus, or gullet, into the first and
second stomachs, in which a churning motion is kept up, carrying the food
from side to side and from stomach to stomach. From the first stomach
regurgitation takes place; that is, the food is returned through the gullet
to the mouth to be more thoroughly chewed, and this constitutes what is
known as "chewing the cud." From the second stomach the food passes into
the third, and from the third into the fourth, or true, stomach, and from
there into the intestines.

Fig. 2. Stomach o