424 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



successively ascend to the mouth to be re-chewed. 

 The animal remains at rest during this operation, 

 which lasts until all the food first taken into the 

 paunch has been submitted to it. The aliment thus 

 re-masticated descends directly through the oesophagus 

 into the third stomach. Now, as this latter tube com- 

 municates with three of the stomachs, the contents of 

 the mouth may be sent into any of the three by the 

 will of the animal. This stomach is the smallest of 

 the three, and resembles a rolled-up hedgehog ; its 

 external coat has broad duplicatures, like the leaves of 

 a book, and is called the manyplies or " omasum " 

 (see 30). There the food only remains a short time, 

 and undergoes some change which fits it for being 

 received into the fourth stomach, which is called the 

 abomasum, the sides of which are wrinkled, and which 

 is the true organ of digestion, corresponding with the 

 same organ in man and other mammiferous animals. 

 The internal coating furnishes plentifully the ordinary 

 gastric secretions for facilitating digestion. There is 

 a beautiful provision in Nature, that while the young 

 ruminants are still feeding on milk, this stomach is 

 the largest of the whole. The paunch is only 

 developed by receiving increased quantities of grass, 

 which finally gives it an enormous volume. The in- 

 testinal canal is very long, though there are but few 

 enlargements in the great intestines. The caecum is 

 likewise long and tolerably smooth. 



Of all animals, the ruminants are the most useful 

 to man. He can eat all parts of the animal ; and it is 

 from that he procures most of the flesh which con- 

 stitutes his aliment. 



The passage of the food through these various 

 stomachs will be easily understood by reference to 

 fig. 4, Plate XIIL Its course is indicated by the 



