142 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



The grass, which is devoured in large quantities by these 

 animals, and which undergoes but little mastication in the 

 mouth, is hastily swallowed, and is received into a capacious 

 reservoir, marked 1 in the figure, called the paunch. This 

 cavity is lined internally with a thick membrane, beset w r ith 

 numerous flattened papillae, and is often divided into pouches 

 by transverse contractions. While the food remains in this 

 bag, it continues in rather a dry state; but the moisture with 

 which it is surrounded contributes to soften it, and to pre- 

 pare it for a second mastication; which is effected in the fol- 

 lowing manner. Connected with the paunch is another, but 

 much smaller sac (2,) which is considered as the second sto- 

 mach; and, from its internal membrane being thrown into 

 numerous irregular folds, forming the sides of polygonal 

 cells, it has been called the honey-comb stomach, or reticule. 

 Fig. 313 exhibits this reticulated appearance of the inner 

 surface of this cavity. A singular connexion exists between 

 this stomach and the preceding; for, while the oesophagus ap- 

 pears to open naturally into the paunch, there is, on each 

 side of its termination, a muscular ridge, which projects from 

 the orifice of the latter, so that the two together form a chan- 

 nel leading into the second stomach; and thus the food can 

 readily pass from the oesophagus into either of these cavi- 

 ties, according as the orifice of the one or the other is open 

 to receive it. 



It would appear, from the observations of Sir E. Home, 

 that liquids drank by the animal pass at once into the second 

 stomach, the entrance into the first being closed. The food 

 contained in the paunch is transferred, by small portions at 

 a time, into this second, or honey-comb stomach, in which 

 there is always a supply of water for moistening the portion 

 of food introduced into it. It is in this latter stomach, then, 

 that the food is rolled into a ball, and thrown up, through 

 the oesophagus, into the mouth, where it is again masticated 

 at leisure, and while the animal is reposing; a process which 

 is well known by the name of chewing the cud, or rumi- 

 nation. 



