100 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FARM. 



paunch. In front it is near the tendinous centre of the dia- 

 phragm. The name bonnet, or king's hood, sometimes heard 

 applied to it, refers to its globular shape. The third stomach, 

 also, is little developed in the calf, as taking no part in the 

 digestion of milk. It is placed on the right side of the 

 paunch, behind the liver. The fourth stomach is well de- 

 veloped in the calf. It lies to the right of the paunch, and, for 

 a short distance, under the manyplies. 



Rumination. Under the head of deglutition (p. 90), some- 

 thing has been already said of rumination, and of the part 

 taken by some of these stomachs in that process. It must 

 be confessed there is some difficulty in understanding the 

 mode in which the several stomachs obtain their contents 

 from the gullet, and as respects the mode in which the two 

 first restore their contents to the gullet. The terms demi- 

 canal and temporary canal create confusion. If the function 

 of this canal in the calf is first looked to, its true character 

 will be more easily apprehended. When the milk is to 

 pass into the third and fourth stomachs at once, how is its 

 passage accomplished? A complete passage at that time 

 extends from the gullet to the third stomach a continua- 

 tion, in short, of the gullet to the third stomach, through the 

 upper part of the first and the second. The action of this 

 canal in the more mature animal differs in this respect from 

 its action in the calf namely, that it is capable of opening up 

 laterally ; that is, what is tantamount to a longer or shorter slit 

 lengthwise in the canal may form, so as to allow its contents 

 to pass into that stomach, or those stomachs, into which the 

 slit opens at the time. When a ruminant animal drinks, it 

 was once supposed that the water passes directly into the third 

 and fourth stomachs like the milk in the calf which supposed 

 fact seemed well to illustrate the nature of the communication 

 of the third stomach with the gullet ; but this illustration is 



