92 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FARM. 



ends of which are drawn together, so as to give the pellets a 

 globular form. These pellets are conveyed to the mouth at 

 regular intervals, apparently by a rhythmical movement of the 

 oesophagus. After the effect of rumination, the mass, now 

 reduced to a pulpy semi-fluid state, is again swallowed, and now 

 it passes along the groove which forms the continuation of the 

 oesophagus without its lips being opened, and thus is conveyed 

 into the third stomach. Thus it appears that when the mass 

 of food is bulky, dry, and resistant, it is forced into the con- 

 tinuation of the oesophagus, and by its bulk and the force with 

 which it is propelled, it opens the lips of the canal, so that it 

 is straight driven into the first and second stomachs, the struc- 

 ture of which will be explained immediately ; but that when 

 the mass of food after the second mastication is soft, pulpy, 

 and yielding, it does not offer sufficient resistance to open the 

 lips of the canal, so that it is propelled onwards to the third 

 stomach. 



The mechanism of the act of deglutition has been already 

 explained in the horse, from which the same act in the ox w r ill 

 be sufficiently understood (p. 31). 



Organs of Digestion in the Abdominal Cavity of the Ox. 

 The trunk of the ox, like that of the horse and other mammals, 

 is divided into chest or thorax, abdominal cavity, and pelvis. 

 The chest is very capacious. There are thirteen dorsal vertebrae 

 in the ox : the most forward of these have the spinous pro- 

 cesses very much developed, and very long, for the more advan- 

 tageous attachment of the muscles and of the nuchal ligament 

 which supports the weight of the head and neck. The ribs in 

 the ox, as in other animals, are the same in number as the 

 dorsal vertebrae. Thus in the ox there is one pair of ribs more 

 than in man. The horse has five pairs more than the ox, while 

 the sheep has the same number. The ribs are broad and thick 

 in the ox, as generally in herbivorous mammals. The chest of 



