16 INTRODUCTION. 



calf only seven weeks old. The ball of hair, when 

 taken out of the animal's stomach, and full of moisture, 

 weighed eleven ounces. The calf was fatted by Daniel 

 Thwaite,of Dale Head Hall, within six miles of Keswick; 

 and slaughtered by John Fisher, butcher, Keswick. 

 The calf was a particularly healthy animal. 



Before closing this brief sketch of the digestive 

 apparatus of the ox, it may not be uninteresting to 

 quote some of the quaint speculations of Nathaniel 

 Grew on this subject, from his ' Comparative Anatomy 

 of Stomachs and Guts.' 



He says : " The voluntary motion of the stomach is 

 that only which accompanies rumination. That it is 

 truly voluntary, is clear, from the command that rumi- 

 nating animals have of that action. For this purpose 

 it is, that the muscules of their venters are so thick and 

 strong; and have several duplicatures, as the bases of 

 those muscules, whereupon the stress of their motion 

 lies. By means whereof they are able with ease to 

 rowl and tumble any part of the meat from one cell 

 of the same venter to another ; or from one venter to 

 another ; or from thence into the gullet, whensoever 

 they are minded to do it so that the ejectment of the 

 meat, in rumination, is a voluntary eructation. 



" The pointed knots, like little papillae, in the sto- 

 machs of ruminating beasts, are also of great use, 

 namely, for the tasting of the meat. The inner mem- 

 brane of the first three venters is fibrous (like the 

 gustatory papillae of the tongue) and not glandulous ; 

 the fourth only being glandulous, as in a man. Of 



