Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

286 CATTLE.
brought as neatly and as closely together as possible—and the whole
while the
secured by bandages passed several times round the neck ;
animal is allowed gruel only for many days, and then mashes. The
dressing should be the healing ointment, daily applied. The power
of nature is great ; and, the foreign body having been removed before
it could cause inflammation and mortification by its presence, the
parts may be reinstated to every useful purpose.
THE CESOPHAGUS WITHIN THE THORAX.
As the oesophagus approaches the chest, it takes a direction more
and more toward the left, and enters it on that side of the windpipe.
It is there found between the laminae of the mediastinum, following
the direction of the dorsal vertebrae. It passes by the base of the
heart, leaving the venae cavae on the right, and the aorta on the left.
It by degrees separates itself from the spine, penetrating between
the lungs, and, pursuing its course toward the diaphragm, passes
through the great opening between the crura of that muscle. As it
travels through the mediastinum and between the lungs, it diminishes
in size, and acquires considerable firmness of texture; but it has no
sooner entered the abdomen, and begun to dip downward, than it
becomes more muscular, and less firm in its structoe. It also rapidly
increases in size until it assumes almost the shape of a funnel ; and
terminates directly in no particular stomach, but in a canal which
opens into all the stomachs, of which, as will be seen, the ruminant
possesses four.
Recourse must be had to a few cuts, in order to render this in-
telligible to the reader.
The cut in the preceding page will exhibit the form of the stomachs
when filled, their relative situations, and their connection with
each other.
a. The oesophagus gradually enlarging as it descends, and appa-
rently running into the rumen or paunch, but, in fact, terminating
in a canal.
b. A continuation of the spiral muscles of the oesophagus, thicker
and more powerful as they approach the termination of that tube.
Before proceeding to the consideration of the other parts delineated
in that cut, let us take a different view of the structure and
termination of the gullet. (See cut on page 288.)
a. The oesophagus, enlarging as it descends, and oecoming more
muscular, and particularly the upper and posterior part of it. The
continuation of it -along the stomachs is slit up, in order to show that
it would form the continuous roof of the canal which is here laid
open, and which leads" to the third and fourth stomachs.
5. The msophagean canal, exposed by slitting the roof from the
termination of the gullet to the third stomach. A considerable part
of the floor is composed of two muscular pillars, lying close to each