434 



ZOOLOGY. 



simple sac with muscular walls. Sometimes it is partly sepa- 

 rated into chambers by folds (Figs. 231, 232). This reaches its 

 greatest complexity in the ruminants, in which four chambers 

 occur (Fig. 232). One of these the rumen becomes a tem- 

 porary receptable for the food which is first' swallowed without 

 being chewed. This peculiar structure is correlated with the 

 habit of rapid feeding and retirement to less dangerous or ex- 



FIG. 232. 



FIG. 232. Diagram of Stomach of Ruminant. After Wiedersheim. 



Questions on the figure. What is the significance of the term rumi- 

 nant? Of what conceivable advantage is this form of stomach? What 

 animals belong to the class? 



posed locations, where the food is forced back to the mouth 

 in appropriate quantities and chewed at leisure. When swal- 

 lowed the second time the food passes on to the glandular 

 divisions of the stomach. The liver and the pancreas pour 

 their secretions into the small intestine near its anterior end. 

 The small intestine is very much shorter in flesh-eating ani- 

 mals than in the vegetable feeders. At the junction of the 

 small and large intestine there is a blind pouch or sac (cacum, 

 vermiform appendix) which is large in the Herbivora, but in 

 man it is a mere rudiment. It is doubtful whether it has any 



