170 THE REASON tVHT 



The condemned English 



Sit patiently, and inly ruminate 



The morning's danger." SHAKSPERK. 



adaptation of their digestive organs. When it is ahundant, the configuration o* 

 the intestines which is intended to delay its descent is less complex ; when the 

 food is scarcer, the intestine is longer, and the obstruction afforded by the valves 

 is greater. 



510. How is the process of rumination conducted ? 



The stomachs of ruminating animals are divided into four 

 chambers, of which the first three are so disposed that the 

 aliment can enter at the will of the animal into any one of 

 them. 



511. The first stomach, or paunch, is divided outwardly into two bag-like 

 appendages at its extremity, and is slightly separated into four parts on the inside. 

 Here are received the masses of herbage, rudely broken up by the first mastication. 

 But no true digestion occurs here ; only a slight maceration, such as water would 

 produce in a degree of moderate heat. The herbage is afterwards transmitted in 

 this state to the second stomach, or honeycomb-bag, so called from the honeycomb 

 similarity of the surface of its coats Here the herbage is arrested, and com- 

 pressed into small maws, or balls, which are thence returned at leisure successively 

 to the mouth for re-mastication. 



During this operation the animal remains in a state of repose until all the herbage 

 swallowed has undergone the action of the molar teeth a second time. The aliment 

 thus re-masticated is transmitted into the third or smallest stomach, the lamina? on 

 the walls of which bear a resemblance to the edges of the leaves of a book when 

 slightly opened. From the third stomach the food is transmitted into the fourth, 

 which is next in size to the first stomach, or paunch, and with an internal villous 

 coat similar to that of the human stomach, with large longitudinal wrinkles. This 

 last is the chief organ of digestion. 



The first three stomachs are connected with each other, and with the oesophagus, or 

 throat, in a very remarkable way. The latter tube enters just where the paunch and 

 the second and third stomachs approach each other ; it is then continued with the 

 groove, which ends in the third stomach. This groove is, therefore, open to the first 

 stomachs, which lie to its right and left. But the thick, prominent lips, which form the 

 margin of the groove, admit of being drawn together, so as to form a complete canal, 

 which then constitutes a direct continuation of the oesophagus into the third stomach. 

 The functions of this very singular part vary, according to its use as a simple groove, 

 or a closed canal. In the first case, the grass, &c., is passed, after a very slight degree 

 of mastication, into the paunch, as into a reservoir. Thence it goes, in small por- 

 tions, into the second stomach, from which, after further maceration, it is 

 propelled into the oesophagus, and conveyed by a muscular backward motif n 

 into the mouth. 



It is here ruminated, and again swallowed, during which the groove is closed. 

 and tke food, aftei this second mastication, is thereby conducted directly into tho 



