154 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FAEM. 



aliment in rumination is not the rejection en masse of the 

 contents of the stomach, like what occurs in ordinary vomiting. 

 It has long been remarked that in rumination a portion of the 

 mass of the aliment is detached, rounded, and moistened by 

 some means before entering the gullet, to return into the mouth. 

 It was formerly believed that the honeycomb is the agent in 

 this process, "that the second stomach detaches a portion of 

 the mass of the aliment received into the paunch, that it 

 rounds that portion, moistens it, compresses it, and forms it 

 into a pellet," before it ascends by the gullet for rumination. 



Flourens has proved by his experiments that rounded pellets 

 are detached from the aliment received into the paunch, and 

 that these rounded pellets ascend to the mouth for rumination ; 

 but his experiments also demonstrate that these rounded pellets 

 are not formed in the second stomach. 



According to Flourens, then, these rounded pellets are formed 

 between the demi-canal and the openings of the gullet into the 

 first and second stomachs. To understand this, it must be 

 remembered that the demi-canal extends from the opening of 

 the gullet to that of the raanyplies ; that when the canal con- 

 tracts, it makes the one of these two apertures approach to the 

 other ; that of these two apertures, the one, that of the gullet, 

 is commonly closed, and that the other, that of the manyplies, 

 naturally narrow, can become more close and also shut itself by 

 its proper contraction ; that when the two first stomachs, com- 

 pressed by the abdominal muscles and diaphragm, contract, 

 they push all at once the matters which they contain both 

 against the two openings opposed to each other and against 

 the demi-canal which is opposed to these stomachs. Thus the 

 two first stomachs, by contracting, push the aliment contained 

 in them between the lips of the demi-canal ; and the demi- 

 canal, contracting in its turn, brings the two openings nearer 

 namely, the opening into the manyplies and the opening into 



