THE FUNCTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 509 



Thus far we have concerned ourselves entirely with the stomachs of 

 man and the carnivora; but, before leaving this part of the subject, we 

 must pay some attention to a class of animals whose stomachs are much 

 more complicated, namely the ruminants. The stomachs of these animals 

 consist of four separate compartments connected with one another. The 

 food at first passes into the rumen, or paunch, then into the reticulum, 

 which is connected with the former by means of a wide opening. The 

 reticulum itself has three openings. One, as just mentioned, leads to 

 the paunch; a second to the third stomach, which is variously known 

 as the omasum, psalterium, or manyplies; while the third opening connects 

 the reticulum, also called the honeycomb, directly with the gullet. The 

 psalterium provides the connection with the fourth stomach, the so-called 

 abomasum, or rennet-bag. From the paunch and the reticulum, the food, 

 which has already been mixed with saliva to some extent, is regurgitated, 

 or thrown up into the mouth, in from 20 to 70 minutes after it has been 

 first swallowed. This process is known as rumination, or chewing the cud. 

 Each time only certain portions of the food are given up by the stomach. 

 In the mouth the food is ground up extremely fine and kneaded together 

 with saliva, after which it is swallowed again, and reaches, if it is already 

 sufficiently pasty, the psalterium, through the so-called cesophageal groove. 

 The latter leaves one side of the gullet at almost a right angle, and con- 

 sists of a tube formed by parallel folds communicating directly with the 

 psalterium. Only pasty and liquid materials can pass along this path. 

 The solid and semi-solid constituents of the food fall from the gullet 

 directly into the paunch and reticulum. A part of the food paste also 

 reaches the psalterium through the narrow passage between it and the 

 reticulum. In the psalterium the food is still more finely subdivided and 

 intimately mixed. In the abomasum, the action of the stomach is com- 

 pleted, and, on the whole, the entire effect is similar to the process which 

 takes place in other mammals. The first two divisions correspond to the 

 cardiac portion of a single stomach, and the two latter to the pyloric end. 



Finally, we must answer the question whether the stomach is an organ 

 which is indispensable to life. This is not the case. The entire stomach 

 has been completely extirpated from a number of dogs and the oasophagus 

 connected directly with the duodenum without causing any disturbance 

 in the health of the animal. 1 Recently the stomach has been successfully 

 extirpated from human beings a number of times. 2 In no case have any 

 symptoms developed which would indicate that the stomach is an organ 



1 Czerny: Beitrage zur operativen Chirurgie, Stuttgart, p. 141 (1878). M. Ogata: 

 Arch. Anat. Physiol. 1883, 89. Carvallo and Pachon: Arch, de physiol. 5 s6rie T. 

 6, p. 106 (1894). 



2 Langenbuch: Deut. Med. Wochschr. 1894, No. 52. C. Schlatter: Korrespondenz- 

 blatt Schweizer Aerzte 27, 705 (1897). 



