142 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FAEM, 



it is again brought back to the mouth for a new mastication 

 and insalivation. 



Saliva. The saliva appears to perform very important offices 

 in ruminating animals in respect to the first changes to which 

 the aliment is subjected. Thus the saliva is not only mingled 

 with the food in the first imperfect mastication, but it is swal- 

 lowed unceasingly during the period which intervenes between 

 grazing the pasture and the commencement of regurgitation, 

 so as to exert an effect on the aliment in the first and second 

 stomachs ; and, finally, during the act of chewing the cud, the 

 new insalivation must be one of the most efficient parts of the 

 process. 



Rumination, Under the head of "Rumination" in the ox, 

 some account has been given of the four stomachs and their 

 function in digestion, all of which is also applicable to the sheep 

 (p. 100). In the following description of rumination in the sheep, 

 a somewhat fuller view has been taken, so that the one account 

 may serve to illustrate the other, and both tend to explain the 

 obscurities that may occur in this somewhat difficult subject. 



The ruminating animal swallows at first aliment which it 

 has barely masticated ; it brings back this aliment again to the 

 mouth to reduce and masticate the same more completely; and 

 after having thus reduced and masticated the regurgitated 

 aliment, it swallows it for the second and last time. The 

 aspect of the process at once is seen to be complex, and its 

 complexity does not diminish on inspecting the organs con- 

 cerned. To borrow the sentiments of a distinguished anato- 

 mist "Kuminants have four stomachs, and each of these 

 stomachs has a proper structure, whence one might conclude 

 that each stomach has a separate function. But what is that 

 function? That is what the relative connections of these 

 several stomachs, both with each other and with the gullet, 

 seem designed to conceal." 



