CHAPTER XI. 



RUMINANTIA. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS OF CHEWING THE 

 CUD USEFULNESS OF THE ORDER THE DEER FAMILY THE ELK 

 OR WAPITI HABITS AND DESCRIPTION EXTRACT FROM LONG'S 

 EXPEDITION. 



The order Ruminantia, Pecora, or Cud-chewers, next fol- 

 lows, peculiarly distinguished by having no incisive teeth in 

 the upper jaw ; their feet are all two-toed, covered with two 

 hoofs, having the appearance of a single one, cleft in the 

 middle. They are altogether herbiverous, and have the 

 power of returning the food to the mouth after it is once 

 swallowed, for a second mastication ; and as the process of 

 chewing the cud is not generally known, we may as well give 

 an explanation of it here. These animals are possessed of 

 four stomachs, the first called the rumea or paunch, being of 

 such capacity as to receive the large bulk of vegetable matter 

 coarsely bruised by the first mastication. Passing into the 

 second stomach, the reticulum or honeycomb (so called from 

 having a beautiful internal membrane of polygonal acute 

 angled cells), the food is here moistened and formed into little 

 pellets, which are then thrown up into the mouth to be again 

 chewed. It is then swallowed the second time in a fine pulpy 

 state, and passes into the third, the omasum, and finally into 

 the fourth, the abomasum, or reed, which is of a pear-shape, 

 and wrinkled, corresponding to the human stomach. Here it 

 is digested by the action of the gastric juice, and its nourish- 

 ing parts absorbed and thrown into the circulation for the 

 growth and renovation of the living system. This gastric or 

 stomach juice, is a colorless liquid, secreted or prepared by 

 the stomach, and by which the process of digestion is 

 carried on. 



